Knights Beat Stars In OT, Extend Series

Published on April 27, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Abbotsford Heat News Release


Tomi Maki scored 9:45 into overtime to give the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights a 3-2 win over the Iowa Stars in game five of their West Division semifinal series. With the win, the Knights have forced game six back in Des Moines on Saturday night.

The Knights struck just 5:30 into the game, scoring the first goal of the game for the fourth time in the five games. Cam Cunning dug the puck off the left wing wall and whipped a pass to the slot. Warren Peters wasted no time firing a shot past Dan Ellis for his second goal of the playoffs.

Ellis had to come up big several times later in the period to keep the deficit to just 1-0 after one.

The Stars tied the game at 13:51 of the second. Joel Lundqvist circled behind the net and dumped the puck in front to Loui Eriksson. He beat Curtis McElhinney with a quick wrist shot.

Just more than four minutes later, the Stars had the lead. Mario Scalzo kept the puck at the left point and fired a shot on goal. Konstantin Pushkarev tipped the shot past McElhinney to make it 2-1 after two.

The Knights got just three shots on goal in the third period, but the third one was the charm. While on the powerplay, Mark Giordano slid the puck to Chris Lee who ripped a bullet past Ellis to make it 2-2.

The Stars finished the third period with a powerplay but were turned aside from their best scoring chance when McElhinney stopped a backdoor shot from defenseman Matt Niskanen.

The deciding goal came nearly halfway through overtime. Derek Couture chased the puck to the left wing corner and tossed it back up the wall. Brett Skinner walked through traffic and then slipped a pass across to Maki who was charging in from the left wing. He flipped a shot over Ellis for his first goal of the playoffs.

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American Hockey League Stories from April 27, 2007


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