Ice Pilots trip up 'Gators 2-1
February 15, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release
Pensacola, FL â Chris Minard scored a power play goal early in the first period and Mike Jones added a man advantage tally early in the third, as the Pensacola Ice Pilots edged closer to first-place Louisiana with a 2-1 home victory over the IceGators. Maxime Gingras made 16 of his 34 saves in the third period for the Ice Pilots, who have 67 points, just three fewer than the IceGators. Mississippi also won tonight in Arkansas and is in third place with 66 points.
Kenny Corupe scored and Kyle Kettles made 23 saves for the IceGators, who are 1-2-0 in their last three and just 1-3-1 this season in Pensacola. Louisiana, which hosts Mississippi on Sunday at 4:05 p.m., could have moved within one win of a playoff berth with a victory. The IceGators' magic number remains four points, a combination of their points and points lost by Baton Rouge.
A knee-to-knee hit by Pensacola's Louis Dumont on Semir Ben-Amor led to Corupe's goal with 1:12 left in the second to tie the game at 1-1, and the IceGators had all the momentum headed into the third.
However, Pensacola scored the deciding goal at the 1:17 mark of the third with its second power play goal of the game. With Shawn McNeil in the box for slashing, Jones kept the puck in the IceGators zone and launched a shot on net. The puck went through a crowd in front, deflecting off an IceGators defenseman and into the net for Jones' second goal of the season.
Pensacola, which enjoyed 30 power plays in two games against Louisiana last weekend, finished 2-for-5 on the power play. The IceGators failed to score on their six chances with the man advantage and are 0-for-12 in the last two games.
The IceGators dominated the final seven minutes but couldn't get the equalizer past Gingras.
Louisiana's Rod Sarich pushed one just wide on the man advantage 6:40 into the third. The IceGators got another power play inside of six minutes, but Gingras twice turned aside Corupe. After the man advantage expired, Gingras kicked out a Shawn Skiehar attempt, and then Chris Taliercio sent the rebound attempt wide.
The IceGators kept up the pressure, making his best save of the night moving left to right on Sarich's rebound attempt with 4:27 remaining.
Louisiana pulled Kettles with a minute left, but to no avail.
The first period was played mostly in the neutral zone, with the teams combining for just 14 shots.
An elbowing call to Louisiana's Derek Boogaard led to Pensacola's first score. A minute into Boogaard's penalty, the IceGators appeared to get a 4-on-4 when Jones took down Bobby Brown, but Brown was called for diving, along with Jones' hooking call. With six seconds left in the Pensacola power play, Minard positioned himself in front of Kettles and tipped a Brad Dexter shot from the point past the netminder for his 12th goal of the season. The tally came at the 3:59 mark.
Louisiana dominated the beginning of the second period, holding a 7-1 shot edge through the first 12 minutes. The IceGators had a pair of power plays but couldn't push a shot by Gingras. Louisiana had three power plays total in the middle stanza but couldn't get on the board.
A knee-to-knee hit from Dumont sent Ben-Amor out of the game late in the period, but it also led to Corupe's goal to tie the game at the 18:48 mark. Dumont leveled Ben-Amor at center ice, and with all eyes on Ben-Amor struggling to get up, Corupe picked up the loose puck, skated in on Gingras and ripped a hard wrister blocker side from the top of the right circle. The goal was Corupe's 16th of the season.
Ben-Amor did return to the game in the third for the IceGators, who started the game with just 14 skaters â two below the ECHL norm.
Kettles kept the game tied after two at the buzzer when Matt Poapst stole the puck in front of the net and fired a shot that the netminder stopped.
Gator Bites:
Jones, a teammate of Louisiana's Louis Mass at Bowling Green State, came out of his retirement as a financial advisor two weeks ago.
Pensacola is 9-for-43 on the power play in its last four games versus the IceGators.
Brown remained at 99 career ECHL goals.
Gingras improved to 5-7-0 lifetime against Louisiana.
The IceGators once again played without defenseman Cal Benazic and winger Daniel Goneau, both injured.
When scoring two goals or less, the IceGators are 2-7-3.
When yielding two or more power play goals, Louisiana is 7-11-5.
Thirty of Louisiana's 52 games have been decided by one goal, with the IceGators going 13-7-10 in those contests, including a 4-5-7 mark on the road.
ECHL Stories from February 15, 2003
- Steelheads Deal Aces a Tough Loss, 4-3 - Idaho Steelheads
- Steelheads Outlast Aces, 4-3 - Alaska Aces
- Ice Pilots trip up 'Gators 2-1 - Louisiana IceGators
- Boardwalk Bullies Trade Two to Baton Rouge for Defenseman - Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies
- Royals Sneak By Bullies in Overtime - Reading Royals
- Sea Wolves Rout RiverBlades, 7-1 - Mississippi Sea Wolves
- Rough Night at the Alltel - Arkansas RiverBlades
- Inferno Leave Greenville with a 4-2 Victory - Greenville Grrrowl
- Generals Hook a Couple of Big Fish - Greensboro Generals
- Steelheads Break Aces Hearts - Idaho Steelheads
- Kingfish acquire Adams and Bell - Baton Rouge Kingfish
- ECHL Transactions - ECHL
- Allen Ties ECHL Shutout Record - ECHL
- All Along the Coast - ECHL
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