Chicago Hitmen Complete Weekend Sweep of Port Huron
Published on October 3, 2010 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Chicago Hitmen News Release
After taking three of four points from the Motor City Metal Jackets last weekend the Chicago Hitmen have themselves their first winning streak in franchise history, thanks to a weekend sweep of the Port Huron Fighting Falcons. The weekend set opened for the Hitmen with a 13-3 win on Friday night, and then on Saturday the Hitmen had another dominating performance winning 5-1.
Friday night's game saw the Hitmen fall behind early when Max Douglas scored just 1:52 into the game. The Hitmen response was quick and powerful as they rattled off the next five goals. Joe Sposit started the string with a pair of goals at 6:38 and 16:25. Just over two minutes later Vince Somma scored his first of the year with the Hitmen on the power play. Sposit then added an assist 4 seconds before the horn setting up James Albrecht for his 4th of the season.
The second period saw another early goal only this time it was the Hitmen who got on the board when Brooks Behling added Chicago's third power play goal of the game, pushing the score to 5-1. Taylor Pickering tried to pull Port Huron back into the game with a late goal in the second and another early in the third cutting the Hitmen lead to two. Albrecht would score again for the Hitmen just two and a half minutes after Pickering's second goal and Brian Berger would get the lead back to four.
Then with Marcus Mitchell in the box, Louis Educate scored the fourth power play goal of the game for the Hitmen, and the Fighting Falcons lost their cool. All four of the Falcons on the ice drew penalties, 48 minutes in total, and put the Hitmen on the power play again. Austin Cihak scored for the Hitmen, with the Falcons in the box. After David Clark took a penalty for the Hitmen resulting in 4-on-4 play Cody Damon scored for Chicago. After Clark's penalty expired the Hitmen then went back on the power play where Chris Barile scored another goal for the Hitmen extending the lead to 11-3. The Hitmen added 2 more power play goals from Behling and Albrecht, who had a hat trick, to close out the scoring at 13-3.
Saturday night's game ( box score) started off similar to Friday's. Ryan Green score just 1:31 into the game to put the Fighting Falcons up 1-0 early. Unlike the previous night the Hitmen were unable to answer early mostly due to stellar early play from new Port Huron goalie Anthony Jacaruso. The power play for Chicago didn't get nearly as many opportunities and they didn't convert either power play they received in the first two periods. "I thought we had a bit of a 13-3 hangover," said head coach Steve Pronger about his team's start; he continued, "but give credit where it is due, their goalie kept them in it."
With just over 4 minutes remaining in the second, Educate, though found a way to get Chicago's special teams going. With Clark in the box Cihak found Educate who cut across the top of the crease and beat Jacaruso for the shorthanded goal to tie the game at 1. Then with 1:59 left in the middle frame, Vincent Somma, who had a "breakout weekend," according to Pronger, found Gabe Gervais to give the Hitmen their first lead of the night. Educate quickly pushed the lead to 3-1 with a goal just 0:34 into the third putting in a rebound of Somma's shot.With a two goal lead the Hitmen played a perfect road third period allowing only 5 shots. On top of stellar defense in the third the Hitmen added two more goals. The first was from Damon on a nifty tip of a Brown point shot, the goal means Damon has scored 6 goals in the last 3 games. The second insurance goal came from Behling off of a Tommy Coy assist.
The pair of victories for the Hitmen means that they have passed the Michigan Warriors in the standings and are only one point behind Traverse City and Springfield for fourth place in the division. Pronger attributes the team's success to the team "buying into the system the coaching staff has tried to put in place." He also praised the way his team "showed discipline, when it would have been easy to loose their cool." One instance Pronger pointed to was on Saturday night when Brent Formosa, who had already won one fight chose not to respond to a second challenge later in the game. The decision by Formosa lead to a Hitmen power play.
Quote of the Weekend: "We scored 18 goals in two games and only gave up 4; I'd say we're pretty happy." Steve Pronger, on how the coaches feel about the weekends result.
3 Stars of the Weekend:
1st Star: Louis Educate 7 points (3,4)
2nd Star: James Albrecht 5 points (3,2)
3rd Star: Vince Somma 5 points (1,4)
Next Up: The Hitmen play a weekend set with the Michigan Warriors. Michigan comes in with a record of 2-4-1 with both 22 goals for and against. The Hitmen have improved their record to 3-7-1 having out score opponents 29-13 over their last 4 games. Both Friday and Saturday night's games start at 8 P.M. central. Tickets are available at the West Meadows box office with seats starting at $5.
North American Hockey League Stories from October 3, 2010
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- Chicago Hitmen Complete Weekend Sweep of Port Huron - Chicago Hitmen
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