Arkansas drops IceGators, 5-2

Published on November 7, 2002 under ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release


Lafayette, LA – Terry Marchant scored twice and a pair of former IceGators had big games against their former team, as Jason Saal made 36 saves and Matt Pagnutti added a goal and two assists, as the Arkansas RiverBlades beat Louisiana 5-2 at the Cajundome on Thursday.

Saal made 12 saves in each period, beating his former mates for the first time since he played for Louisiana in the 2000-01 season. Saal improved to 3-5-3 against the IceGators in his career. Matt Poapst and Jason Bermingham also scored for the RiverBlades, who are unbeaten (5-0-1) in their last six games to tie Mississippi atop the Southwest Division standings with 16 points.

Shawn McNeil scored his league-leading 11th goal for Louisiana to up his ECHL-best point streak to 11 games, and Bruce Richardson also scored for the IceGators. Frederic Cloutier made 26 saves.

"Jason Saal was definitely the difference in this game," said IceGators head coach and vice president of hockey operations Dave Farrish. "We also made some bad decisions that resulted in a lot of 2-on-1's. You can't afford that against a team as hot as they are."

The IceGators are winless in four straight games (0-3-1) for just the seventh time in franchise history, and for the first time since four straight regulation losses from February 10-18, 2001. Louisiana's franchise-record winless streak was an 0-10-0 start in 1996, when the team had to forfeit nine games. The longest winless streak other than that was six games (0-2-4), from January 9-16, 1998.

Arkansas scored on just its second shot of the game, after 52 seconds expired in an interference penalty to Kevin Mitchell. Buddy Smith, along the right boards, passed the puck to Pagnutti at the center point, and the blueliner ripped a one-timer past Cloutier for the one-goal edge.

Poapst made it 2-0 at the 11:52 mark, finishing off a 2-on-1 with Marchant. Marchant streaked down the left boards, angled towards Cloutier and slid a pass past a defender to Marchant, who took a second to settle the puck, then lifted a shot over Cloutier's blocker.

The IceGators finally broke through on their fourth power play of the period, when Bermingham went off for tripping at 18:25. Louisiana worked the puck around, with Bobby Brown sending a pass to Mitchell in the right circle. Mitchell dropped a pass to McNeil in the high slot, and McNeil angled the puck past a screened Saal to get the IceGators within 2-1.

Louisiana outshot the RiverBlades 13-6 in the first period, but Saal came up huge. "We had a lot of chances early on, and (Saal) made some phenomenal saves in the period."

The RiverBlades went back up by two goals at 3:08 of the second, once again on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Ernie Hartlieb took the shot from the right circle, and the rebound trickled between the circles. Marchant was there to pick up the pieces to restore the two-goal edge.

"We've just got to work on the mistakes," said Farrish. "It's going to take a team effort. I think everyone realizes after tonight that everyone's got a lot of work to do."

Cloutier kept it a two-goal game with 11:33 left in the period, as Hartlieb wristed a shot from the left circle that the netminder grabbed with his outstretched glove. Seconds later, he stoned Bermingham from up close.

Richardson drew the IceGators within 3-2 at 8:56 of the third on a 4-on-4. Richardson parked himself in front of the net and found a loose puck, poking it past Saal for his fourth goal of the season.

Arkansas padded its lead to two goals again with 8:17 left, with Saal pulled after a delayed penalty on Mitchell and J.P. Morin already in the box for interference. Marchant picked up a loose puck at the doorstep and put it in an open net.

Bermingham finished off the scoring on another 2-on-1 with 5:17 left.

The RiverBlades finished 2-for-7 on the power play, while Louisiana was 1-for-6.

Gator bites:

Louisiana has failed to score first in seven of its last eight games, including four straight. In five of the last six games, the IceGators have given up a goal in the opening 1:58 of the contest. Overall, Louisiana has allowed its opponent to score first in eight games this season. In 2001-02, just 19 opponents hit the scoreboard before the IceGators did, and Louisiana went 9-8-2 in those games.

Pagnutti never had more than six goals in any of four seasons with the IceGators, but he had nine with Arkansas last season and has three already in 2002-03.

Saal is 28-10-9 since January 1, 2002. Other than a win last season at Alltel Arena against the IceGators, he hadn't beaten them since February 11, 1996, when he played for South Carolina.

McNeil's 11-game point streak is one shy of his career-best, set from January 19-February 16, 2001. McNeil had 11 goals and 10 assists in that span. In his current streak, McNeil has 11 goals and seven assists.

Cloutier is winless in three games (0-2-1) for the first time in his career, having also dropped two straight games in regulation for the first time.

Richardson's first three goals had included a pair of empty-net goals and one with the extra attacker.

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