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Ice Dogs Hold Off Roadrunners 6-5

by Andrew Nordmeier
December 31, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners


The Phoenix Roadrunners had eight days between games, one of the longest breaks in the ECHL. There was a question as to whether they would come out rested or rusted after not being in a game situation since Dec. 22 against Idaho. They went back to practice Tuesday but it didn't seem like it in the early going Friday night at the Long Beach Arena.

Long Beach (14-13-2) capitalized on the Roadrunners' rustiness and seized a 3-0 lead in the first period before hanging on to a 6-5 win over Phoenix.

Phoenix (9-16-2) got behind the proverbial eight ball just 2:48 into the game when Sean McAslan tipped his own rebound past Roadrunners' netminder Michael Mole for his third goal of the year. It became 2-0 when Max Faulkner's wrister found the net behind Mole at 13:08 and a two-man advantage goal made it 3-0. Ash Goldie took a feed from behind the net and beat Mole for his team-leading 15th goal of the season at the 16:05 mark.

The Roadrunners rallied back to within a goal with the first two tallies of the second period.

Jason Deskins got Phoenix on the board with an unassisted goal at 13:55. His low wrister along the ice went between the pads for Long Beach goaltender Greg Hewitt and is his seventh goal of the year. Brad Woods' power-play bomb from the left point at 18:39 made it a 3-2 game and gave Phoenix plenty of momentum heading into the third period.

Or so they thought. The Ice Dogs got a goal with 34 seconds left in the period and broke the Roadrunners' rush of energy. Mole was caught out of the net and really had no chance to stop Kevin Ulanski's shot into the nearly-empty net at 19:26. It put Long Beach up by a pair heading into the third.

In the third, Long Beach re-established its three-goal cushion with a goal from Chris Kenady just 1:03 in for his 11th tall of the campaign.

Peter Trovato brought Phoenix back to within a pair with his goal at 4:20 when his slapper snuck through Hewitt's pads and had just enough oomph to get over the goal line for his third of the year. Long Beach responded with Cory Urquhart's seventh of the season to make it 6-3 with 10:13 left in the game.

Phoenix rallied back one last time when Jake Riddle scored at 16:30 to make it 6-4. Mike Ouellet scored with two seconds left off of a tip-in to close out the scoring.

Mole stopped 25 of 31 Long Beach shots in the loss and falls to 5-12-2 this season. Mole has allowed 23 goals in his last four games. Hewitt stopped 35 of 40 Phoenix shots to pick up the win and bring Long Beach above the break-even point.

The Roadrunners host the Pacific Division leading Fresno Falcons in a two-game set Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at America West Arena.

Three Stars

3. Deskins-PHX Goal and two assists in the loss

2. Urquhart-LBH Game winning goal for the Ice Dogs

1. McAslan-LBH Goal and two assists in the win.

Notes: The Roadrunners found out leading scorer Cory Pecker has signed a contract with the Binghamton Senators of the AHL. His return to Phoenix is highly unlikely but if he gets sent back down , he will rejoin the Roadrunners...Forward Ben Knopp may see his first game action Saturday since tearing the medial collateral ligaments in both of his knees October 29th...Phoenix has allowed the first goal for the eighth straight game and is 4-13-2 when allowing it...With the loss, Mole now leads all ECHL goaltenders in that category with 12...Phoenix set a season high on shots with 40 besting the previous high-water mark of 36 set against Bakersfield earlier this month...Attendance was 2,875



ECHL Stories from December 31, 2005


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