Arizona Falls to Amarillo 5-4
Published on February 13, 2008 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Arizona Sundogs News Release
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. - The Arizona Sundogs and Amarillo Gorillas skated in one of two Central Hockey League games Wednesday night at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley. Coming into the contest, the Sundogs were tied with the New Mexico Scorpions for first place in the Southwest Division, but held the tie breaker with 26 wins, one more than the Scorpions. The two Southwest Division teams traded scoring opportunities but it would be the Gorillas that would come out on top with the 5-4 win. Despite the loss, Arizona remains tied for first place with the New Mexico Scorpions.
Amarillo went on the powerplay early on Wednesday night and wasted no time converting for a 1-0 lead. Brett McConnachie tallied his second goal of the season on a pass from Nate Fornataro just 1:56 into the contest. Just over six minutes later, Arizona was tagged with its second penalty of the game but Tyler Liebel grabbed his club's fifth shorthanded marker of the year as he skated in alone on Amarillo goaltender Dan McWhinney. Olivier Latendresse collected an assist on the play as he found a streaking Liebel up the ice. The Sundogs grabbed a 2-1 lead at the 11:27 mark as Dusty Collins pushed home a loose puck in front of a crowded Gorillas' net. Rob Lehtinen and Mark Kolanos were credited with assists on the Collins tally for the 2-1 first period lead.
The visiting Gorillas pulled even midway through the middle period as Chris Lipsett intercepted a Sundogs outlet pass intended for Kolanos and fired a low wrist shot past Sundogs netminder Rob McVicar for his 24th of the season. Rookie forward Barry Horman regained a one-goal lead for Arizona with 5:54 to play in the second, sneaking a high shot over the right shoulder of McWhinney for his second goal since joining the Sundogs. Latendresse and Liebel notched their second points of the game with helpers on the go ahead tally. Through the first two periods of play, both teams tallied 27 shots on net.
Amarillo evened the score at 3-3 1:44 into the third period as David Nimmo beat the Sundogs defense to a puck behind the Arizona net and fed a no-look pass to Austin Sutter for a one-time shot. Fornataro dumped the puck in to start the play and was also credited with an assist on the play. Amarillo's Nimmo notched his second point and first goal of the game as he fired a slap shot over the shoulder of McVicar at the 13:56 mark to give his club its first lead since early in the first period. With less than three minutes to play in regulation, the Gorillas' Bill Vandermeer seemed to put the game out of reach with a tally from Sutter to open a two-goal lead. Arizona answered back 33 seconds later on a Jason Visser goal to make it 5-4 with less than two minutes to play. Liebel assisted on the play for his third point of the night. Head Coach and General Manager Marco Pietroniro pulled McVicar in place of an extra attacker with one minute to play but the effort fell short and Amarillo skated away with the win.
Rob McVicar appeared in net for Arizona and stopped 35 of 40 shots in the loss while Dan McWhinney played between the pipes for the Gorillas and blocked 31 of 35 shots in the win. The Sundogs were held scoreless on the lone powerplay chance they had in the game but did tally a shorthanded marker while on the penalty kill. The Gorillas converted on their first chance with the man advantage but were held scoreless on their next four.
Next up for the Sundogs is a weekend series against the Rocky Mountain Rage on Friday and Saturday night at Tim's Toyota Center. Both games are set for 7:05pm start times. Tickets are available for both games by phone at 1-866-4-GET-TIX (1-866-443-8849), on the internet at www.gettix.net and in person at the Tim's Toyota Center Box Office.
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