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Gems Fall to Blaze 5-3 at Home on Thursday Night

December 29, 2011 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Dayton Gems News Release


Dayton, OH - The Gems would fall to the visiting Bloomington Blaze 5-3 despite a late period comeback effort on Thursday night on Cassano's Italian Ice inside the historic Hara Arena. Scoring for the Gems were Damian Surma, Kyle Bochek and Ryan Hohl.

With the hometown crowd still filing into their seats, the Gems would take advantage of the atmosphere early to score the game's opening goal just 3:46 in off the stick of Dayton's leading goal scorer Damian Surma. While earning quality chances through the first twenty minutes, the Blaze would pick up momentum for themselves with a tying goal less than a minute later to make it 1-1 at the 4:31 mark before capitalizing on a defensive lapse in the Gems zone to take the lead with their second goal of the night at 14:28. The Blaze would pressure the Gems through the horn and ultimately outshoot Dayton 18-10 after one period.

Taking matters into his own hands right off the opening draw in the second, Kyle Bochek would light the lamp off a snapshot only :23 into the frame to again tie the game, this time 2-2. A much more aggressive period, things would turn to fisticuffs with Brandon Naurato duking it out against Bloomington's Travis Granbois at 6:17. The Blaze would extend their lead with two quick goals in front of a scrambling Gems net in the final two minutes of the stanza to take a 5-2 lead into the second intermission while again outshooting the Gems 14-12 after forty minutes.

Looking to start their comeback effort, Ryan Hohl led the charge with his first goal of the season to trim the visitors lead back down to two and make it a 5-3 game nearing the midway mark at 8:29. Despite outshooting Bloomington 15-2 in the third, Dayton would be unable to come any closer to the Blaze, falling at home by a final score of 5-3.

With the loss, the Gems drop their record to 11-12-5 with 27 points in the Turner Conference and travel to Quad City to begin a home and home series on Friday night. Bloomington improves to 9-16-2.

Tickets to the next Gems home game on Saturday, December 31 against Quad City are now available by calling the Gems ticket office at 275-7777 or by visiting www.DaytonGems.com . Discounted tickets are also available for groups of ten or more, and include special group perks. Call 275-7777 for details.

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