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Gems Burn Sundogs With 4-3 Shootout Win

November 13, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Dayton Gems News Release


Dayton, OH- Following their impressive 4-1 win over the Fort Wayne Komets last night, the Gems were looking to continue their winning ways tonight as they took on the Arizona Sundogs of the Berry Conference for the first and only meeting of the season. Derek MacIntyre was the story in last night's win with 44 saves and that performance earned him his second consecutive start tonight in front of an anxious crowd at Hara Arena.

For the second straight night the Gems struggled finding the net in the opening period, but what might have contributed to that occurrence were the whistles, and there were plenty of them on both sides within the first 20 minutes. The two teams combined for nine penalties and the shots were just about even at 10-9 with the slight edge going to Arizona. MacIntyre matched his counterpart Levente Szuper stop-for-stop to keep the zeros on the board.

It didn't take long for the scoreless tie to be broken at the beginning of the second period. Tim Hartung gave the Gems the early 1-0 lead at the 2:22 mark with his first of the season when he roofed a one-time pass form line-mate Mike Vaskivuo into the top half of Szuper's net. Although the first period was a blank for both offenses, the second period story would be an eye for an eye (or in this case a goal for a goal) and the Sundogs tied the game at 1-1 on the power play when Karl Sellan pushed one in behind MacIntyre at the 6:53 mark. Rookie Erik Boisvert answered the Sundogs power play goal with one of his own less than seven minutes later to re-take the lead at 2-1. Then, with less than three minutes remaining in the period, Adam Smyth made the Gems pay for a costly turnover in the slot and wristed one under the stick-side arm of MacIntyre to tie the game at 2-2. Just when it looked like that would be all of the scoring in the period; the Sundogs took an undisciplined penalty and sent the Gems back to the man advantage. This time it was Vaskivuo completing the feed from Hartung as he buried the puck past Szuper with just: 27 seconds left in the frame to give the Gems a 3-2 lead.

The majority of the third period play was dictated by the Gems, but the Sundogs kept finding different ways to get their chances and continued to poor on the pressure on the Dayton defense as they tried to tie the game for the third time on the night. Nine more penalties would be called in the third (six of which were on the Gems) including a tripping call on defenseman Nathan Oke and a holding call on defenseman (and Captain) Greg Labenski that set up a nail-biting finish. With their goalie pulled and an extra man on the ice since the Gems were on the penalty kill, the Sundogs tied the game with only 6.3 seconds left as Mark Kolanos beat MacIntyre upstairs on the glove side to send it to overtime tied at 3-3.

Prior to tonight's game the only other time the Gems went to overtime they also ended up in a shootout, well that scenario played out once again against the Sundogs tonight. What should not be overlooked however is the fact that the Gems penalty kill had to finish off a 4-on-3 Arizona power play to start the extra session. Corey Couturier and Tim Hartung would score for the Gems in the shootout and MacIntyre was brilliant with two spectacular saves, the first of which he came out to the circle and stole the puck off the shooters stick and the second where he reached up with his glove and ripped the puck off the stick as he was down and spread out post-to-post. Gems win 4-3 and improve to 5-2-1 on home ice this season.

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Central Hockey League Stories from November 13, 2010


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