Arkansas Dumps Kingfish 7-3

Published on January 24, 2003 under ECHL (ECHL)
Baton Rouge Kingfish News Release


Arkansas exploded for four late second period goals and a solid effort from goaltender Jason Saal with 35 saves as the RiverBlades downed the Kingfish, 7-3.

Arkansas opens the scoring at the 15:09 mark of the first period of play as Mike Sandbeck beat Jeff Blair to the short side to give Arkansas the one goal lead. Damon Whitten and Philippe Lakos added the assists.

Buddy Smith gave the RiverBlades a two goal lead at the 16:22 mark as he took a centering pass from Ernie Hartlieb and buried the puck past Blair. Jason Bermingham also added an assist on the goal.

Garnet Jacobson cut the RiverBlades' lead to one as he fired a rebound past Jason Saal from the slot at the 16:51 mark of the third period for the unassisted goal.

Jason Norrie tied the game at two goals apiece 47 seconds into the second period as he corralled a rebound and flipped the puck past Saal. Joe Guenther added an assist on the goal.

Arkansas rattled off the next four goals to take a commanding 6-2 lead after two periods.

Ernie Hartlieb got things going for the RiverBlades at the midway mark of the period as he was credited with the goal as the puck slowly rolled over the line before the Kingfish could get to the lose puck. Smith and Eric Long added the assists on the goal.

Damon Whitten gave the RiverBlades a two-goal lead on the power play as he fired a wrist shot past Blair at the 13:43 mark of the period. Gary Toor and Terry Marchant added the assists on the goal.

Mike Sandbeck hooked up with Damon Whitten and beat Blair at the 18:22 mark of the period to give the RiverBlades the 5-2 lead.

Sixteen seconds later, Harlieb extended the Arkansas lead to one as he beat Blair on a breakaway. Buddy Smith found Hartlieb behind the Kingfish defense to spring the breakaway. Matt Pagnutti also added an assist on the goal.

Arkansas took a 7-2 lead at the 11:31 mark of the third period as Terry Marchant came out of a pile up behind the Kingfish net and pulled Jeff Blair out of his net before firing the puck over is shoulder for the goal. Matt Pagnutti and Damon Whitten added the assists on the goal.

Joe Guenther took a centering pass from Bryan Richardson at the 18:34 mark of the third to cut the lead to four as the Kingfish took advantage of a bad change by the RiverBlades. Trevor Demmans also added an assist on the goal.

Jeff Blair made 26 save in the losing effort as he falls to 5-16-5 on the season.

The Kingfish host the Jackson Bandits on Wednesday at the ‘Fish Tank'. Catch all the action on Baton Rouge's Best R & B, 104.5 WZRB, beginning with the Kingfish pre-game show at 6:50 p.m.

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ECHL Stories from January 24, 2003


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