Devils Sweep Jackals With 3-2 Win
November 8, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Trenton Devils News Release
Trenton, NJ, November 8, 2009 - Sunday was no day of rest for the Trenton Devils and Elmira Jackals in their third and final contest this weekend. Jeff Prough scored two goals to lead the Devils to victory, giving him four goals and three game-winning goals against the Jackals this weekend.
Tempers flared early and often, starting with a fight between Chaz Johnson and Myles Stoesz just four minutes in. Bad blood continued to boil late in the period as Brett Gallant was assessed a double-minor penalty for a vicious spearing attempt on Myles Stoesz. Stoesz did not hesitate to express himself, dropping the gloves with Gallant for the second time in just as many days. Stoesz also received a roughing penalty in the melee and Brennan Turner received a game-misconduct for coming in to the fight as the third-man.
Adding to the contentious mood, Chanse Fitzpatrick was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct minor, along with a 10-minute misconduct, with less than a minute to go in the first.
The Jackals penalty troubles carried into the second period, allowing the Devils to capitalize on the man-advantage for the first goal of the game. Tony Zancanaro redirected Brett Wilson's right wing drive across the slot to a wide-open Jeff Prough for the backdoor power play goal.
Elmira answered six minutes later when Olivier Proulx shot one toward the goal mouth from the deep right-wing and the puck deflected off a Devil defender past Coleman for the goal to tie the game.
At the halfway mark of the second, the Devils took control of the game's tempo, in the same way they had in Saturday's affair. After killing off a Jackals power play, the Devils again took the lead on an odd-man rush led by Jeremy Akeson. Hampered by two defenders, Akeson had trouble controlling the puck on the right wing, but Mike Harder, trailing the play, quickly gathered the puck and drew the attention of Jackals goalie Michael-Lee Teslak leaving Kyle Kucharski open to the left of the slot. Harder's beautiful sharp pass across the slot set up a one-time blast from Kucharski on the backdoor, reminiscent of Prough's goal earlier in the period and the Devils took a 2-1 lead.
Prough scored his second goal of the game with less than one minute to go in the second period to put the Devils up 3-1. The insurance goal came after a Brett Wilson shot kicked out to the high slot, landing right on the stick of the trailing Prough who burried the puck in the back of the net for the eventual game-winner.
The Jackals' Chanse Fitzpatrick scored with just under five minutes to go in the third period, however the Devils held on to win, despite being short-handed for the final minute of the third period.
Devils goalie Gerald Coleman stopped 29 Jackal shots in the game, making some very good saves, including an early flurry by the Jackals and some clutch saves through out the third period.
The Devils improve to 5-3-1-1, 12 points, and now trail the East leading Jackals (7-2-1-0) by three points. Trenton concludes a three game homestand Wednesday against the South Carolina Stingrays at 7p.m.
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