SKATER & GOALIE OF THE WEEK #16

There was no scoring in the second and again, the Harbor Rats held an 11-8 edge in the shots.

In the third, Ohio build a two-goal cushion when Tim Kerr picked up his 16th goal on a wrister. Brooklyn battled bask to cut the deficit in half at 11:49 when Behn Wilson notched his ninth, going to the glove side.

With the goaltender pulled and the game seconds away from a Legends victory, Anton Stastny snuck his 20th goal of the year in over Denis Herron’s glove with 8.9 seconds to go. That sealed the 2-2 draw. The shots once again heavily favored Brooklyn, 16-5 and for the game, 38-23.

Neither power play unit was of not, as the Harbor Rats failed in their two chances, while the Legends came away emptyhanded three times.

Denis Herron stopped 36 in the sister-kissing contest, while Wayne Stephenson turned away 21.

As winter ebbs away, there’s only a few more days where you can sled down the hill after a game. But the fudge and waffles are here all year.

It first comes to blows at the halfway point of the 1st period with Secord and Barber mixing it up, getting 2 minutes off. Shortly after that, the Firebirds post the first goal when Tonelli gets a rebound and slips it past a distracted Meloche. Ruff than commits a penalty which proves costly, as the home team then returns the favor when Barber grabs a rebound and feeds Kurri for a shot at an open part of the net. Just minutes later, the Firebirds take advantage of the chaos of a line change and its Anderson to Maruk to Tonelli to Langway who nails a long slapshot to make it 2-1 Philly.

The 2nd period sees Philly control play early, keeping Meloche busy in goal, 2 unsuccessful breakaways by Dionne, but no damage is done. The Moose tweak their gameplan and that seems to work. The Moose even the game at 2 on a Barber deflection of a Kurri pass. A short while later, on a Holmgren penalty, the Moose get a prolonged possession in the zone and wear down the Firebirds with sharp passing which culminates in a deflection by Napier of a Russell shot. Before the period ends, the Moose bobble a zone entry and Lee combines with Dionne on a rush that ends up with Lee getting one by Meloche. The period ends 3-3.

Early in the 3rd, after each team has a possession, the Moose execute a nifty zone entry play that ends with Lysiak passing to Kurri who scores the 4th goal for the Moose. Holmgren continues his penalty fest and hooks up with Smith for a little skirmish. Russell then commits a penalty for the Moose, who are then able to kill of the 4 on 3, 5 on 4 to maintain the one goal lead. Both teams skate spiritedly for the duration of the period, the Firebirds adding pressure with 3 forecheckers. Neither team is able to capitalize until the 2 minute mark when the Moose get a goal from Boutette on a delayed penalty situation, which is quickly followed by and empty netter (Stewart) when the Firebirds pull the goalie in a last ditch effort to even things up.

1st star – Kurri 2g1a
2nd star – Boutette 1g1a
3rd star – Barber 1g1a

Jari Kurri leads the effort this week with 2 goals and 1 assist.

1st Star – Perry Turnbull (SCW), G
2nd Star – Rick Meagher (SCW), G
3rd Star – Willi Plett (SCW), G

1st Star – Mike Bossy (CHI), 2G
2nd Star – Dan Labraaten (CHI), G & A
3rd Star – Rick Kehoe (SCW), GTG & A

1st Star – Jerry Korab (SCW), 2G
2nd Star -Rick Kehoe (SCW), 2G
3rd Star – Larry Murphy (SCW), G & 2A

The score didn’t reflect how close the game was. Total shots in the game were 38-36 in favor of Saskatoon, faceoffs were a dead heat at 33 won by each team (16 by Gretzky alone), hits 19-15 in favor of Columbus. Despite that Saskatoon had a big edge in the meaningless TOA stat 7:35 to 3:35.

Goal scorers in this one were for Columbus Doug Wickenheiser (2) and Blaine Soughton (34). For Saskatoon it was Keith Acton (9), Joel Quenneville (9), Doug Risebrough (8), Dave taylor (36) and Brent Ashton (3) strutting his stuff and getting the cheesy empty-netter.

GAME STARS:
1. SAS, Acton (1 G, 1 A)
2. SAS, Risebrough (1 G, 1 A)
3. SAS, Maloney (3 A)

Merlin Malinowski (17) put the Cyclone on the board 1st in the sleepy opening period that saw all of 10 shots directed in total at Saskatoon’s Lemelin and Capjack’s Rogie Vachon. Rod Schutt (30) evened things out late in the period with a power play goal and gave the home town fans their first hint that all may not have been right with their goaltender on this night.

It took all of 72 seconds into the 2nd period for the Rangers’ Risto Siltanen (17) to flex their scoring muscles on a nice 3-on-2 featuring the wacky passing antics of Schutt and Lucien Deblois. The Cyclone tied it up midway through the period on a power play goal by Jacques Richard (31) with usual suspects Wayne Gretzky and Dave Taylor chipping in with helpers.

The next 20 minutes of the game were not so pretty for the Cyclone as Ross Lonsberry (10), Rick Dudley (8) and Norm Barnes (2) got into the scoring books for the Rangers between the 12:12 mark of the 2nd period and 12:43 mark of the 3rd – on about 10 shots. Sigh.

The Cyclone sent Lemelin racing to the bench with 2:30 left to play and from that point on Saskatoon had Capjack penned in their own end with alarmingly good results as Kent-Erik Andersson (17) scored at 18:05 and then Richard won a minor victory for the home crowd by scoring his 2nd of the game and 32nd of the season with a dozen seconds to go.

Ah well … another one of those games dominated statistically by the team that found itself on the losing end. Such is life.

GAME STARS:
1. SAS, Jacques Richard (2 G, 1 A)
2. CAP, Rod Schutt (1 G, 1 A)
3. CAP, Ross Lonsberry (1 G)

Errol Thompson (16) and Joe Micheletti (3) opened the scoring for St. Clair Shores who outshot the Cyclone 32-25 in the contest. A goal by Kent-Erik Andersson (18) midway through the period kept the Cyclone within striking distance of the Saints heading into the first intermission. Thompson’s goal was actually the high point of excitement in the 1st period as he scored the goal on a delayed slashing penalty to Darcy Rota who then tried to crash the Saints’ celebration by tossing several punches to the head of Rob Ramage. Chris Nilan would settle the score late in the period by mercilessly pummelling former real-life teammate Doug Risebrough.

The 2nd period – or at least the first three minutes of it – were ones that Rob Ramage would rather soon forget. The feisty blueliner took a double-minor for checking Doug Risebrough from behind and during the ensuing penalties the Cyclone tied it up on Jacques Richard’s 33rd of the year and then took the lead on Kevin Lowe’s 14th.

Some gritty forechecking by Bob Kelly and Greg Malone triggered a turnover deep in the Cyclone end and at 3:33 Kelly stickhandled around Mattsson and tucked the puck into the Saskatoon net for his 21st of the year tying it 3-3.

Midway through the 3rd period, Jacques Richard intercepted a pass in his own end and sent Dave Taylor in alone on Saints’ keeper Mike Liut and Taylor (37) blasted it over his shoulder to give Saskatoon back the lead 4-3.

Wayne Gretzky (44) connected on a pass from Taylor on the power play at 12:00 to make it 5-3 and pretty much end any offense mounted by either team for the rest of the game. The story of the game was Mike Liut being slightly less than his usual sharp self in nets for the Saints and Markus Mattsson not playing net like a plowhorse for a change.

GAME STARS:
1. SAS, Dave Taylor (1 G, 2 A)
2. SAS, JAcques Richard (1 G, 2 A)
3. SAS, Wayne Gretzky (1 G, 1 A)

Side note: Marc Tardiff and Darcy Rota remain on the trading block for the Cyclone.

The Saints come back on goals by Kelly and Ftorek to tie the game early in the 3rd period.

With under 2 minutes go go, Doug Wilson scores for the Saints…but also Savard scores for the Chiefs to tie the game.

Chiefs 2 Saints 2

1st – McKegney 2 points
2nd – Kelly 2 points
3rd – Wilson 2 points

“Do you have the SPIRIT?” 😉

Final Score: Columbus 6 – Chicago 2

Labatts Three Star Selection:
Star #1 – Doug Jarvis – 2 Goals
Star #2 – Michel Goulet – 1 Goal, 3 Assists
Star #3 – John Ogrodnick – 4 Assists

John Ogrodnick – 4 Assists & Phil Myre 32 Saves for Columbus.

Game Winning Goal – Doug Jarvis

DUDLEY – got his hat trick in 6:23 of playing time on 10 shifts. Hmmmm, pretty good use of his time. And all PP goals – as he was caught on ice for them as he wasn’t in any PP lines!!