Hounds lose to Rio Grande Valley

Published on February 18, 2006 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Youngstown SteelHounds News Release


Hidalgo, TX. - The Youngstown SteelHounds (19-27-3) could use the excuse that it was something in the water or search for a full moon but the bottom line is that the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (22-20-5) mounted a three goal third period comeback to eventually take the 5-4 decision in a shootout on Saturday night in the Dodge Arena. Mario Chinelli scored a pair of goals and had an assist in the loss as the Hounds gave up a season-high 51 shots on net. The shootout loss gave the Hounds points in five of their seven games (4-2-1) on their current eight game road trip.

The SteelHounds once again got off to a quick start scoring the first goal of the game at the 12:23 mark while on the power play. The play started with a point shot by Jeff Christian that was stopped by Terry Dunbar who gave up a big rebound. Chris Richards was on the side of the net uncontested allowing him to center the puck to Chris Shaffer who scored his seventh goal of the season. With the assists, Richards and Christian each extended their point streak to nine straight games. Youngstown added to their lead just one second after a power play had expired when Kelly Sickavish's blast from the left point was re-directed by Mario Chinelli for his 12th goal of the season assisted by Sickavish and Shaffer at the 18:47 mark of the period. The Killer Bees outshot the Hounds 14-10 in the period as Simon St. Pierre stopped all 14 shots he faced and Dunbar turned away eight shots.

The second period might have been the wackiest period of hockey in SteelHounds history. It included a little bit of everything and after the dust settled, the Hounds maintained their two-goal advantage by a score of 3-1. The SteelHounds added to their lead with a two-on-one rush that saw J.F. Labarre feed Jonathan Gagnon who slid the puck under Dunbar for his 11th goal of the season assisted by Labarre and Chinelli at the 10:58 mark. Then all the craziness ensued. First Damon Bencharski took a backhanded shot and ran over St. Pierre forcing the puck to cross the line. After much discussion, the goal was disallowed keeping the score at 3-0. Then Kris Mallette and Ryan Shmyr dropped the gloves and continued their battle verbally from the penalty box possibly setting up a dance later in the game. Next, Christian was called for a major elbowing penalty and was given a game misconduct. The Bees received a major power play and with a penalty assessed to Darryl Lloyd during the power play had considerable time of a two-man advantage but failed to score. The Bees lone second period goal came at the 17:10 mark with a center-ice shot by Bill Newson that fooled St. Pierre bringing the Bees to within two goals. Clearly rattled, St. Pierre got caught wandering aroud behind his net and had the puck stolen by his nemesis Newson who then buried the puck into the net but that goal was also disallowed because St. Pierre was called for delay of game prior to Newson taking the puck away. The Hounds had to kill two more minutes of a Bees power play taking them into the dressing room a little shaken. Rio Grande outshot the Hounds 19-5 in the period and led 33-15 through two periods.

The Killer Bees had not won this season when trailing after two periods but they used the momentum from their late second period goal to mount a comeback in the final period. Newson once again found the back of the net with a rush up the left wing that the shot was deflected off a SteelHound defender by St. Pierre. The Bees tied the game at the 16:49 mark when Bret DeCecco scored off a losse puck in front of the net assisted by Daymen Bencharski and Kurtis Dulle. Youngstown answered quickly regaining the lead just 10 seconds later with Chinelli scoring his second goal of the night off a nice feed from Labarre from behind the net. Trailing 4-3, the Bees pulled their goaltender in the final minute and a half and got the puck in front of the net where after several chances they were able to get it by St. Pierre tying the game and sending it to overtime. The Bees outshot the Hounds 12-2 in the final period and finished the game with a 51-19 advantage.

After a scoreless overtime, the teams took the decision to a shootout which lasted a SteelHound franchise record seven rounds. Trevor Weisgerber scored the game deciding goal finishing off the comeback for the Killer Bees.

St. Pierre finished the game with 46 saves but falls to 5-7-1 with the shootout loss.

The road trip concludes on Monday in Fort Worth as the Hounds look to improve to 5-0 this season versus the Brahmas. Face-off is scheduled for 7:00 PM (EST).

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Central Hockey League Stories from February 18, 2006


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