Gems Earn a Point, But Fall in Shootout 5-4

November 6, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Dayton Gems News Release


Dayton, OH- Hoping to rebound after a tough, hard-fought 1-0 loss last night, the Gems went back to work against the Colorado Eagles for the second and final time during the regular season. Goaltending for both sides was the theme in game one of the weekend series, but tonight a whole new story began to unfold in front of a psyched up crowd at Hara Arena.

Early on it was evident that tonight would be an offensive contest when the Eagles banged home a rebound just 41 seconds into the opening period when Dylan Stanley put the puck in behind Gems starter Jeff Jakaitis. Former Eagle and current Gem Brett Lutes tied the game at the seven minute mark when he deflected a perfect shot from the point by Captain Greg Labenski passed Eagles starter (and former Dayton Bomber) Andrew Penner. Less than a minute later, Colorado regained the lead and held on for a 2-1 advantage after the first 20 minutes.

In the second, it took a little bit of time for both teams to find their offense, but when they did it turned the feel of the game around for good. Assistant Captain Chris Lipsett tied the game at 2-2 when he completed a beautiful individual effort by toe-dragging the puck around the defender and in one fail swoop snuck it inside the far post at the 10:58 mark. All of the sudden it was all Gems and 26 seconds after the Lipsett goal, Ernie Stewart gave the Gems the first lead of the night at 3-2 by crashing the net and sneaking one behind Penner. Five minutes later, Lipsett would pick up his second of the night, again on an unassisted goal when he made the Eagles pay for turning the puck over right in front of the crease to extend the lead to 4-2 with just under four minutes left in the second. Despite the borage (3) of goals from the Gems in the second, the Eagles didn't panic and cut the lead back to one with just over a minute and a half left, so onto the third they went with the score Gems 4, Eagles 3.

What started out as a defensive-minded period of hockey suddenly turned into a puck shooting gallery when the two teams combined for 25 shots in the third period. Late in the third with time running out in regulation, the Gems were called for a tripping penalty that put the Eagles on the power play with 1:13 remaining. After winning a key faceoff in the Gems zone, the Eagles pulled Penner for the extra attacker and by doing so found a way to slide the puck just behind Jakaitis to tie the game at 4-4 and send the Gems into their first overtime of the season.

The extra five minutes would not be enough on this night and both teams struggled to set up scoring chances and add to the shots on goal numbers, so onto the shootout they went. Brett Lutes would be the only Gem to score in the shootout and Scott May's tally past Jakaitis gave the Eagles a 5-4 win in the shootout. Lipsett's power play goal broke a streak of over 20 straight penalty kills for the Eagles, but with the win Colorado improved to 7-1-0 on the season and made it seven straight victories at that. With the point gained tonight, the Gems are now 3-2-1 and will look to improve that record this upcoming week with two home games on Thursday (Fort Wayne) and Friday (Arizona) before traveling to Evansville on Saturday for their second road game of the season.



Central Hockey League Stories from November 6, 2010


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