Phoenix Downs Pensacola to Run Win Streak To Four
by Andrew Nordmeier
February 3, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners
The Phoenix Roadrunners are winning by defeating teams with mascots based on land, sea and air. They completed the air part of that statement with a 3-2 win over the Pensacola Ice Pilots Thursday night at the Pensacola Civic Center. They downed the Utah Grizzlies (land) to start the win streak and swept a pair from the Victoria Salmon Kings (sea) to get this winning streak going.
Phoenix (15-24-3) went into overtime for the third straight game and came out with two points. This time it was a Jake Riddle deflection of a Shaun Fisher shot from the blue line that gave Phoenix the win only 30 seconds into the extra frame. Pensacola (16-22-5) found itself down 2-0 after being on the end of a bad joke. It ran something like this.
"Knopp, Knopp" Phoenix said.
"Who's there?" Pensacola replied.
"Ben" Phoenix said.
"Ben, who?" Pensacola replied.
"Ben scoring against your goalie twice and your team is down 2-0." Phoenix smiled while delivering the punch line and seeing themselves up by a pair after forward Ben Knopp notched his first two goals since missing time with a knee injury. Knopp's first goal came 8:41 in when he slipped it by Pensacola netminder Todd Ford for the opening goal. Knopp also found himself behind the Ice Pilots' defense and used a slick wrister to beat Ford at 4:29 of the second period.
Pensacola came back with goals in the second to knot the score. Adam Courchaine's backhander on the power play beat Phoenix net minder Michael Mole at the 8:00 mark. Luke Fulghum knotted the score at 17:55 in a delayed penalty situation against Phoenix.
Shots ended up even at 26-26 and Phoenix went 0-for-3 on the man advantage. Pensacola finished 1-of-5 with a rare power play goal. The Ice Pilots are last in the league on the power play with a success rate under 11% and were just 9-for-136 coming into the game on their home ice.
Phoenix played without forward Peter Trovato who announced his retirement from the game. Trovato, the founder of the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund (mslfund.org), chose to leave the team to pursue that line of work on a full-time basis and attend law school.
These two teams meet again tomorrow night to wrap up their two game series and give the Roadrunners a week before their next game. Phoenix starts a three-game series with the Alaska Aces next Friday night to wrap up its season-long nine-game road trip.
Three Stars
3. Dusbabek-PHX Assists on both Knopp goals.
2. Riddle-PHX Game-winning goal
1. Knopp-PHX Two goals
Notes: Phoenix is 10-3-0 when scoring first; Pensacola is 6-14-3 when they allow the first strike...These two teams have each outshot their opponents nine times and are 2-7 when that happens...Pensacola is 12-2-5 in one-goal games while Phoenix is 9-5-3...Only Trenton (24) and Augusta (26) have fewer power play goals on the year than the Ice Pilots' 29...Phoenix played without forward J.F. Soucy who was serving the second half of a two-game suspension...Pensacola has suited up 41 different players this season...Mole made his 11th straight start for Phoenix while Ford took to the nets for the 19th time in Pensacola's last 22 outings...The 26 shots allowed by the Ice Pilots was 13 fewer than their average of 39.36 shots per game...Attendance was 1,987.
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