Allen's OT winner sends Tornado to Cup finals
May 7, 2012 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Texas Tornado News Release
The Texas Tornado advanced to the championship game of the Robertson Cup after a 4-3 overtime victory over the defending champion Fairbanks Ice Dogs in the second semifinal game. They will face the St. Louis Bandits --who eliminated Amarillo earlier in the day-- on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m., looking for their fifth Robertson Cup title. Drew Allen netted the overtime winner after Drew Mayer hit him with a centering pass and Allen slipped the puck through the five-hole of Ice Dogs goaltender Alex Fons with just over three minutes left in overtime. The play was created by John Kirtland, who pinched in to knock the puck deep to Mayer before he gave the puck up to Allen. Mayer also added a goal of his own, while Skyler Spiller and Justin Greenberg also picked up goals for the Tornado.
Fairbanks opened up the scoring at 8:03 of the first period on a goal scored by Alec Hajdukovich. But the Tornado answered back with a goal of their own just over four minutes later to tie the score. Fairbanks' Sean O'Rourke lost the handle on the puck in his own zone, creating a Tornado two-on-one. Jordan Lovick took control and found Spiller cutting to the net to tie the score at one.
With under a minute left in the first period, Fairbanks regained its one-goal lead. Gabe Levin skated the puck down the left-wing boards and threw it out in front, where Rudy Sulmonte was driving hard up the middle. Sulmonte reached his stick out and redirected the puck past Tornado goaltender Hunter Leisner, who earned the win making 23 of 26 saves on the night.
The Ice Dogs took the 2-1 lead into the second, where Mayer picked up the lone goal of the middle period. In a similar play to the one which led to the overtime winner, a centering pass from behind the net led to a Tornado goal. This time, though, the roles were reversed, as Allen fed Mayer and the Troy, Mich. native scored to tie the game at two at 3:31 of the third period.
It remained a 2-2 game through the second period and half of the third, when Anton Racklin scored to give Fairbanks another one-goal lead. Sulmonte raced into the Tornado zone on the right-wing side as the defenseman Racklin jumped into the play on the left wing. Sulmonte gave him the pass and Racklin ripped it past Leisner to give the Ice Dogs a 3-2 lead.
The Tornado, however, would not go quietly. With just over five minutes to go in regulation, the Tornado had the puck in the Ice Dogs zone. After a shot from the point got blocked, the puck came right to Lovick's stick. He tried a centering pass, though that also got stopped. It pinballed around until it finally found the younger Greenberg's stick blade, and he snapped the puck past Fons to tie the score at three and eventually force overtime.
Allen's game-winner marked the first time in five tries this postseason that the Tornado won a game in overtime. They lost a pair of overtime games to Topeka in the divisional playoffs before dropping games in overtime to both Amarillo and St. Louis in the pool play portion of the Robertson Cup. Their chance for revenge against the Bandits comes on Tuesday, with the winner of that game to hoist the Robertson Cup at center ice of Dr Pepper Arena.
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