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OHL Saginaw Spirit

Battalion Outlast Spirit 5-3

November 18, 2005 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Saginaw Spirit News Release


(Saginaw) -- The Saginaw Spirit struck first, but were unable to hold on against the Eastern Conference Brampton Battalion Friday night in Saginaw, dropping the game 5-3. The Spirit are now 13-7-0-0 on the season and retain a hold on first place in the OHL West Division. Spirit General Manager and Head Coach Bob Mancini say he emphasized to the team that they need to learn lessons from the game, but also look forward to the Kingston Frontenacs on Saturday night. "I think it's important that we move forward. We have to be ready to go tomorrow and be ready from the drop of the puck to play a full sixty minutes of hockey."

Saginaw opened scoring at 5:53 of the first period when Ryan McDonough knocked in a Michal Birner (STL '04) rebound on a 5-3 powerplay. Spirit captain Patrick McNeill (WAS '05) also assisted. "We didn't play a full sixty minutes tonight," McNeill said after the game. "We played hard at first but lost focus. We'll have to adjust for tomorrow's game." Brampton returned fire with a powerplay goal of their own when winger Luke Lynes scored at 9:37. The Battalion extended ther lead to 2-1 three minutes later on a Aaron Snow goal and jumped up 3-1 in the 18th minute of the period forward Michal Klejna scored on a two-on-one break.

The Spirit shut the Battalion down in the second period, but were unable to generate any goals to cut the Brampton 3-1 lead. Saginaw cut Brampton's lead to 3-2 at 3:08 of the third, when defenseman Garrett Sinfield scored his first OHL goal unassisted. But the Battalion battled back and extended their lead to 4-2, on a 5-3 powerplay goal from Jason Cassidy at 5:19.

The Spirit pulled goaltender Francois Thuot at 18:23 to put an extra attacker on the ice, but Brampton took advantage of the empty net and Nolan Waker scored, to give the Battalion a 5-2 lead. Saginaw's Thuot returned to the net, and with :30 seconds remaining, the Spirit cut the Brampton lead to 5-3 when forward Jack Combs scored a wrap-around goal.

Thuot stopped 33 shots in the effort. Saginaw returns to action Saturday to face the Kingston Frontenacs. Gametime is 7:11 PM at the Dow Event Center. A complete gamesheet is available at www.ontariohockeyleague.com.

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