Bulls Head to Helena All Square
March 29, 2004 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Billings Bulls News Release
The Billings Bulls will head to Helena Friday hoping to extend their playoff run. In order to do that, they must either win two road games, which isn't a stretch, or bring the series back to Metra Park on April 9th. With a road record of 20-5-2, the Bulls have been very strong playing away from home. The Bighorns got the best of Head Coach Mike Aikens' team Friday night, winning 5-2 to send the series back to the Capital City.
Aikens says the team will regroup this week and focus on the old cliché, taking one game at a time. "For 20 or 30 minutes, we outplayed them Saturday. Unfortunately, we forgot to come for the rest of the game," Aikens said. "Because the series has so much time in between each game, we should be fine."
Ian Schaser started the scoring when a Tyler Truax shot hit off someone out in front, landed right on his tape and Schaser put it in the empty net.
Less than 2 minutes later, Mike Mayra was assessed an elbowing penalty and the Bighorns capitalized. Andy Gevorkyan fired a slapper on goal that had eyes and beat Jon Anderson, who never saw the shot.
The Bighorns, 15-9-4 at home, pulled away in the second with three goals, two from Joe Lewis and one from Nico Rodriguez. Helena was able to score short-handed, on the man advantage, even strength and added an empty-net goal.
"We have to play for a full 60 minutes if we want to be successful against them," said Aikens, "They capitalized on our mistakes and at this time of the year, the mistakes are magnified to where it will cost you the hockey game."
Billings and Helena resume their best-of-five series Friday, April 2nd at 7:05 p.m. Game 4 is set for Saturday, April 3rd and if necessary, Game 5 will be back in Billings on April 9th at 7:05 p.m. All games can be heard on 105.1 The End or on www.sportsjuice.com.
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- Bulls Head to Helena All Square - Billings Bulls
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