IceGators Fall to IceBears
April 8, 2016 - SPHL (SPHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release
LAFAYETTE, La.--The Louisiana IceGators' final regular-season series began on a sour note Friday night.
The IceGators found themselves on the wrong side of a goalie dual, falling to the Knoxville IceBears 2-1 in the first game of the final series of the season. IceBear goaltender Brian Billett earned the win by stopping 28 of 29 IceGator shots. Adam Courchaine picked up the loss despite stopping 21 of 23 Knoxville shots.
The IceGators and the IceBears will meet again Saturday night in the Cajundome to play the final game of the regular season. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m.
"This is a tough loss," IceGators head coach Drew Omicioli said. "We played sloppy for the first 13 minutes of the game, but we rebounded and outplayed (the IceBears) for the next 47 (minutes). Billett played well, as did Courchaine. We had a stick penalty and one really bad defensive zone breakdown, and they capitalized on both. That was enough for them to grab the two points."
Adam Sedlak took advantage of that stick penalty by scoring a power play goal at the 6:31 mark of the first period. Corey Hale and Danny Cesarz assisted on the play.
The IceGators knotted the score eight minutes into the second period when Mike Kavanagh, after taking a feed from Jeremy Boyer at the left point, blasted a slapshot from the slot past Billett. Zac Frischmon also assisted on the score.
Four minutes later, Knoxville took advantage of a defensive lapse to regain the lead. Zack LaRue passed the puck off the boards to Trever Hertz, who in turn fed the puck to a wide open Doug Reid, who scored the eventual game-winner on Courchaine's blind side.
The IceGators have to forget this result quickly and bounce back Saturday to protect their playoff position.
"We need to beat Knoxville in regulation to grab sixth place," Omicioli said. "Once again, we need to put together 60 minutes in order to beat anyone in this league. We didn't do that tonight."
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