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Gems Fall 2-1 in Overtime to First Place Evansville

February 26, 2012 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Dayton Gems News Release


Dayton, OH - The Dayton Gems, led by a stellar performance by netminder Dan Dunn would take the CHL-best Evansville IceMen into extra frames, but would be unable to capture the win, falling 2-1 on Cassano's Italian Ice on Sunday afternoon. Scoring for the Gems was Nick Fanto.

Meeting for the tenth and final time this regular season, the IceMen skated into the Gem City looking to improve on their impressive nine game winning streak, and would fire on all cylinders early off the opening draw. Dayton, with Saturday night's shootout win at their backs, also rose to the challenge and would pressure the IceMen, despite an inability to put a plethora of pucks on IceMen netminder Bryan Gillis. Evansville would strike first, beating Dunn with their second best powerplay, lighting the lamp at the 11:06 mark of the first. With the IceMen given another powerplay minutes later, the Gems took advantage of a shorthanded rush to tie the game with Nick Fanto's 15th goal of the season. Fanto's goal, assisted by Damian Surma would occur at the 15:52 mark and would deadlock the game headed into the first intermission. Shots in the opening twenty minutes favored the visitors 13-3.

The remainder of regulation would give the hometown Hara Arena crowd a gritty and physically aggressive flow, again featuring quality saves by Dunn as the Gems continued to be outshot by the IceMen 15-9 in the second and 9-8 in the third. The Gems biggest chance at putting the game away in regulation came near the midway mark of the third period, when the Gems generated two separate shorthanded breakaways, each denied by Gillis to keep it a 1-1 game heading into overtime.

Evansville would only need 1:47 to nab the victory in overtime, as Niklas Lindberg tipped in a low shot past Dunn to unceremoniously end the Gems weekend homestand and their season series against the IceMen. Final shots on goal favored Evansville 39-20.

With the overtime loss, the Gems see their record slip to 18-25-11 while the IceMen pick up their league high tenth straight win to remain firmly in first place in the Turner Conference.

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