Gold Kings lose 3-2 (SO)
March 23, 2002 - West Coast Hockey League (WCHL)
Colorado Gold Kings News Release
Long Beach, CA - The Long Beach Ice Dogs battled back from a 2-0 deficit and kept Colorado winless in its last five with a 3-2 shootout victory before a crowd of 7,467 Saturday night at Long Beach Arena.
The Gold Kings dominated most of the opening period and took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission on the strength of a power play goal by Dwayne Blais at 5:40, assisted by Craig Lyons and Cody Bowtell. For Blais, the goal marked his first since February 5th while Bowtell registered his first point in his second game in a Colorado uniform.
Colorado extended the margin to 2-0 on another power play as Aaron Boh ripped a one-timer past Long Beach netminder Marten Engren only 1:23 into the second period, set up by Lyons and Xavier Majic, appearing in his first game for the Gold Kings. Engren denied Colorado a chance to blow the game open with breakaway stops on Bowtell and Greg Schmidt before Todd Kidd cut the gap to 2-1 with a slapshot from the point at 17:50.
The Ice Dogs tied the game early in the third period (1:51) on a fluke shot from the point by Chris Peyton that deflected off Gold Kings' defenseman Juraj Slovak and trickled between Kirk Daubenspeck's legs. Colorado outshot Long Beach 6-3 in the final period and 25-18 for the game, but headed into a shootout with the extra point on the line. Zac Boyer kept the Gold Kings alive with a clutch goal in the fifth round, but Engren stopped six consecutive shots from that point and Kelly Askew finally gave the Ice Dogs the victory by beating Daubenspeck in the 11th round. Colorado dropped to 4-7 in shootouts and 0-4-1 in its last five games while Long Beach ran its record to 9-1 in the extra session and has won 14 of its last 16 contests.
The Gold Kings, who are now 35-23-7 on the year but only 1-4-2 against Long Beach, finish up their season series with the Ice Dogs at Long Beach Arena Sunday afternoon at 5:05 p.m. MST. Jack Michaels calls the play-by-play for Colorado's games, all of which are broadcast live on KKCS-AM Hot Talk 1460.
West Coast Hockey League Stories from March 23, 2002
- Gold Kings lose 3-2 (SO) - Colorado Gold Kings
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