Devils Surge Soured By Shootout Loss, 3-2
December 17, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Trenton Devils News Release
Trenton, NJ, December 17, 2009 - The Cyclones defeated the Devils 3-2 in a six round shootout Thursday night, the first of three games between the teams in four days. Hans Benson scored the game-winning goal and goaltender Jeremy Smith made 35 saves in the win. The Devils faithful saw the return of Chris Murray, back from an eleven game stint with Lowell, along with Chris Poli, playing his first game in over a year due to injury. Both players recorded assists in the game.
Although the Devils controlled much of the play at the game's start, the Cincinatti Cyclones opened the scoring 6:26 into the first period. Chris Morehouse registered the Cyclones first shot of the game on a slap shot from the right point. Camped out in front, Barret Ehgoetz jumped on the rebound and slid it past Gerald Coleman's blocker side for a 1-0 lead.
Slavomir Tomko committed a holding penalty 11:49 into his Trenton Devils debut, giving the Cyclones the first power play of the night. Working the perimeter on the man-advantage, Cincinnati's Dwayne Zinger sent a past to Mike McLean who took a wrist shot from the right point. McLean's shot deflected off of a Trenton defender to Jason Josza, high in the left slot. Josza unloaded a wrist shot past a sliding Gerald Coleman for the two-goal advantage with 43 seconds left in Tomko's penalty.
The Devils answered three minutes later on a wraparound goal by Jack Combs, his first goal with Trenton. Jeff Prough and Chris Murray collected the assists as the Devils sent the puck behind the Cyclones net where Combs picked it up. The Cyclones defense overcommitted, sending two defenders behind the goal to cover Combs. Combs eluded the two defenders with ease, skating around the net to the goaltender's left side to jam the puck home.
The Devils first power play of the game came 13:39 into the second period as Jamie Coghlan knocked Kyle Kucharski to the ice a second too long after he dumped the puck into the Cincinatti zone. With 48 seconds to go in the man-advantage, Justin Pender ripped a slap shot from the left point to tie the game 2-2. Brett Wilson and Chris Poli collected assists on the goal, giving Poli his first point in the first game he has played in over a year.
The third period remained scoreless despite a number of power play opportunities favoring the Devils, including a short four-on-three advantage for Trenton. Gerald Coleman kept his team in the game with some very nice, timely saves including a short-handed two-on-one rush. The Devils' defender Chris Murray took away the pass allowing Coleman to challenge the shooter, confidently snagging the shot with his catching glove. Neither team could muster the go-ahead goal in regulation, and when the offensive struggles continued into the overtime period, the game went to a shootout.
Dustin Sproat and Jack Combs both made nifty dekes to the backhand and were the only players to score in the first five rounds of the shootout. Hans Benson sealed the win for Cincinnati with a quick deke that just caught a piece of Coleman's leg pad, squeaking through his five-hole.
The Devils (9-13-2-3, 23pts) look to avenge their loss when they again take on Cincinnati (15-10-0-1, 31pts) Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Sun National Bank Center.
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