McNeil, DePourcq star in home-opening win
October 18, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release
Lafayette, LA - Shawn McNeil had two goals and John DePourcq had the game-winner in his first game at the Cajundome in two seasons as the IceGators opened the portion of their schedule with an impressive 4-2 win over the Mississippi Sea Wolves. The win was head coach Dave Farrish's 100th as an IceGator.
Bruce Richardson also scored and Kevin Mitchell and Bobby Brown added two assists each for the IceGators, who scored four power-play tallies for the first time in the Dave Farrish regime to improve to 2-0-0 for the third straight season. Frederic Cloutier made 19 saves for Louisiana to win his second straight start and the 30th game of his career. The IceGators improved to 8-0-0 all-time in home openers and play at the Cajundome against Baton Rouge Saturday at 7 p.m. Legacy and the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency will be giving away 1,000 pucks.
The game started nearly one hour late because Mississippi's bus encountered traffic on the way to Lafayette. The IceGators also honored IceGator greats Rob McCaig, Ron Handy and Rob Weingartner prior to the game as part of their "Back to the Future" theme.
McNeil's first goal snapped a 1-1 tie at the 2:05 mark of the second period. The tally came less than one minute after Greg Gardner entered the game in net for Mississippi after Mike Buckley left with an injury. With the IceGators on the power play, Mitchell slid a pass from the blueline to McNeil in the right circle, and McNeil fired a shot by Gardner for the one-goal edge.
DePourcq was credited with the game-winner when he scored at the 5:41 mark of the middle period. DePourcq positioned himself between the circles and found himself all alone. He took a pass from Brown and beat Gardner high glove side for a 3-1 lead.
The two-goal remained until midway through the third period, after the IceGators did quite a bit of penalty killing. Louisiana had to kill off a pair of full 5-on-3's, with Cloutier making several key stops. The second-year netminder, last year's ECHL MVP, stopped Cody Bowtell twice from point blank range with 15:19 remaining. Bowtell took just a second to control a puck in front of a wide open net, and a sprawling Cloutier made the save. Cloutier stoned Bowtell again on the rebound, covering up on the faceoff.
But at the 8:55 mark, Steffon Walby found his way into the slot and, on an assist from Chris Cava, slid the puck under Cloutier to get the Sea Wolves within 3-2.
"We had a couple of breakdowns defensively that created some scoring chances, but Cloutier made some great saves," said Farrish.
Mississippi couldn't solve Cloutier over the final 11-plus minutes. The Sea Wolves got nine of their 21 shots in the final period. Richardson's empty-netter after a five-minute slashing call to Mississippi's Dave Paradise finished the scoring.
Louisiana's Shawn Skiehar and Mississippi's Doug Christiansen each went off for fighting with 10 seconds left to send the crowd home even happier. It was the evening's only fight, but fans could notice much more physical play by the IceGators compared to last season.
"We want to be more physical," said Farrish. "Last year we had great skill on the blueline, and we've got some great physical players out there this year, and that's one of the reasons we've limited our opponents to so few shots."
"There was a lot of emotion with it being our home opener," said Farrish. "It will be an interesting rematch on Sunday."
The IceGators and Sea Wolves play in Biloxi on Sunday at 5:05 p.m.
Louisiana went 4-for-7 on the power play, while killing off all nine shorthanded chances. The IceGators have surrendered just two goals on 15 shorthanded chances in two seasons. They also outshot the Sea Wolves 40-21 and have outshot their opponents 93-38 on the season.
Gator Bites:
McNeil could have become the first IceGator to notch a hat trick at the home opener.
DePourcq's last official goal came on March 17, 2000, against Jacksonville. Louisiana won that game 9-5.
Mitchell has four assists through his first two games.
McNeil needs four goals for 100 in his pro and IceGators careers.
DePourcq played in his 200th ECHL game, 150th as an IceGator.
Last season, the IceGators were 47-0-2 when allowing two goals or less.
Cloutier has allowed two goals or less in 28 of his 38 pro games, including 12 of his last 14.
The IceGators last scored four power play goals on March 25, 2000, against New Orleans. Farrish took over the team in the 2000-01 season.
McNeil had his 18th multi-goal game as an IceGator, fifth on the team's all-time list.
It took Farrish just 146 games to reach 100 wins. Doug Shedden, the other coach to win 100 with Louisiana, took 171 games.
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