Bucks Rally To Win Game One
March 26, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Laredo Bucks News Release
ALLEN, TX- The Laredo Bucks beat the Allen Americans 4-3 Friday night in game one of the Central Hockey League's Southern Conference semifinals at the Allen Event Center. The Bucks lead the best of seven series one game to nothing with game two Saturday night.
Laredo trailed 3-2 entering the third period but struck twice in the final frame to improve to 15-4 all-time in game one of a playoff series.
Pier Pelletier stopped 33 of 36 shots he faced including all 12 in the third period as he won his professional playoff debut. Going back to the regular season Pelletier is 10-0-2 in his last 12 decisions.
Neil Trimm gave Laredo a 4-3 lead with 10:50 left in the game when he scored on a slap shot from the top of the slot to pick up his first-career CHL Playoff goal.
Mike Looby scored his second goal of the night just 2:46 into the third period to tie the contest at 3-3. Looby entered Friday's game one with just one career CHL playoff goal.
The Americans had an empty net for the final 1:09 of the game but could not tie it as Pelletier made several key stops to hang on for the win.
Allen was 28-1 in the regular season when leading after two periods.
Allen jumped out in front of the Bucks just 4:34 into the first period when Liam Huculak scored on a backhander right in front of Laredo's net.
Laredo would battle back and take a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Looby tied the game at 1-1 at the 9:32 mark of the first when he scored from the top of the right circle off of an Allen turnover. The strike was Looby's second career CHL playoff goal.
The Bucks took a 2-1 lead with just 42.5 seconds left in the first period. Jarred Mohr picked up a loose puck in Allen's zone and found a wide-open Darryl Smith in front of the net who scored on a backhander. The goal was Smith's sixth career CHL playoff goal.
Laredo was outshot 11-10 in the first period.
Allen would strike twice in a span of one minute to take a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Tobias Whelan tied the game at 2-2 at the 5:31 mark of the second period on a broken play in the Bucks defenseive zone.
Just one minute later Eric Adams put the Americans ahead 3-2 when he jammed in a rebound into the back of the net after a breakaway attempt by Bruce Graham.
The Bucks outshot the Americans 13-9 in the second period but were outshot in the game 36-32.
Chris Whitley suffered the loss for Allen as he set aside 28 of 31 shots he faced.
Jeff Bes picked up an assist in the game to score his 100 career CHL playoff point.
Brent Cullaton will miss games one and two to coach the Boulder Junior Bisons in the National Tournament in Boston.
A power-outage at the Allen Event Center just after warm-ups caused the start of the game to be delayed by 30 minutes.
Game two is set for Saturday night at 7:30pm at the Allen Event Center.
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