Jackals Earn Gutsy 4-3 Win Over River Otters
January 21, 2006 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2)
Elmira Jackals News Release
Elmira, NY - The Elmira Jackals overcame an early 2-goal deficit to beat the Missouri River Otters 4-3 Saturday night at the First Arena.
After a heartbreaking loss Friday to the Danbury Trashers 3-2, the Jackals were back in action on Saturday against the Missouri River Otters, their first meeting since the 2002-2003 UHL season.
The River Otters jumped to an early 1-0 lead as Jimmy Callahan put the puck past Jackals goaltender Ryan McIntosh just 2:03 into the first period. Missouri added another tally onto the scoreboard when Frank Littlejohn tipped in a shot from Jeff Brown to take a two goal lead at 9:04. Trevor Burgess tallied his second goal of the season on a wrist shot from the blue line, assisted by Eddy Lowe at 16:07, cutting the River Otters' lead in half. With just under a minute left in the first period the Jackals evened the score when Konstantin Kalmikov caught a pass from Chris Chaput and fired a bullet of a wrist-shot over the shoulder of Missouri goalie Kevin Reiter. The goal was Kalmikov's fifth of the season, assisted by Chaput and Florian Iberer at 19:01.
In the second period, both goalies played extremely as they were able to only allow one goal each on a combined 27 shots faced in the period. Elmira took a 3-2 lead on a power play from Kevin Cooper, who collected his 18th goal of the season at 10:58, assists coming from Jason Sessa and Trevor Burgess. However, 32 seconds later the River Otters were back on level ground as Dave Stewart found the back of the net to tie the game at 11:30. There were a lot of power play opportunities for both teams as there was a total of seventeen minutes in penalties in the second period, but the score remained 3-3 at after forty minutes.
The Jackals were able to kill a five on three penalty kill at the beginning of the third, as Burgess and Kalmikov were both in the penalty box. The final twenty minutes were played very defensively as both goalies continued their excellent form. The period remained scoreless until Cooper picked up his second goal of the night and nineteenth of the season at 14:13, three seconds after Missouri's Martin Vasut came out of the penalty box. The goal was assisted by Craig MacDonald and Florian Iberer, giving Elmira a 4-3 lead. That would be it for the scoring as the Jackals went on for their 14th win of the season.
Both goalies played mistake free hockey as Elmira's Ryan McIntosh made 27 saves on 30 shots to pick up his ninth win of the season. Kevin Reiter stopped 27-of-31 shots in goal for the River Otters. Elmira finished 1-for-6 on the power play, while Missouri was left wanting at 0-for-6.
The Jackals will spend the week practicing, while they send Jarrett Konkle and Chris Chaput to Missouri for the UHL All-Star Classic. Elmira is back in action next Friday, January 27th for two games on the road at the Danbury Ice Arena. The Jackals next home game is Sunday, January 29th against the Motor City Mechanics, a 4:05 pm face off at the First Arena.
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International Hockey League 2 Stories from January 21, 2006
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- Frostbite Rally to Down Trashers 4-3 - Adirondack Frostbite
- Mechanics triumph over Flags - Motor City Mechanics
- Trashers lose 4-3 to Adirondack - Danbury Trashers
- Jackals Earn Gutsy 4-3 Win Over River Otters - Elmira Jackals
- Countdown to Face-Off - Kalamazoo Wings
- Dane Jackson named Frostbite head coach - Adirondack Frostbite
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