Pilots drop IceGators in OT in another one-goal game
December 17, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release
Pensacola, FL â Kevin Cloutier scored on a rebound 2:14 into overtime, just after a Pensacola power play had expired, to lift the Ice Pilots over the IceGators 4-3 at the Pensacola Civic Center in yet another one-goal game for Louisiana, which still took over the points lead in the ECHL.
Gregor Baumgartner scored twice in a 2:25 span in the second period and Maxime Gingras was outstanding in goal with 37 saves for the Ice Pilots, who have won two straight following a two-game losing streak. Scott Hewson scored 34 seconds into the game for Pensacola.
For Louisiana, Bobby Brown scored 56 seconds into the game and Daniel Goneau and Tony Tuzzolino added third-period goals as the IceGators rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final eight-plus minutes. Kyle Kettles notched 24 saves.
The IceGators, who have played a franchise-record eight straight one-goal games, gained a point to move one point up on Mississippi for first place in the Southwest Division and overall in the ECHL. Mississippi and Atlantic City each have 38 points.
Louisiana has played three straight games that have gone to overtime, tying their season-high and getting within one game of their franchise-record.
Trailing 3-1 and just 20 seconds after Louisiana's Nathan Rempel was stopped close from close range, the IceGators finally got to Gingras again with 8:10 left, with the teams 4-on-4. Bruce Richardson picked up a loose puck at center ice and got it to Goneau skating down the left wing. Goneau, who just returned from AHL Hershey, beat Gingras glove side for his 11th tally of the season.
Just less than three minutes later, Louisiana got another chance, when Pankewicz was whistled for hooking, and then picked up a misconduct penalty on top of the minor.
The IceGators capitalized on the critical mistake by the Ice Pilots veteran, getting a goal by Tuzzolino with 12 seconds left on the power play and 4:07 remaining in regulation. J.P. Morin took two shots from the point, and the last rebound came to Tuzzolino, who beat Gingras with his eighth goal of the season.
Pankewicz has 137 penalty minutes in just 22 games this season, including three game misconducts and four, 10-minute misconducts. He has at least one misconduct in each of the past four games.
Pensacola's Gaetan Royer hit the crossbar with 2:50 left, a shot that would have put the Ice Pilots back on top.
The IceGators had to kill off a Cal Benazic holding call just nine seconds into overtime, and Kettles came up huge with three seconds left on the man-advantage, robbing Brad Dexter with a glove save.
However, just eight seconds later, after Dexter fired a shot from the point, Cloutier crashed the net and slid the puck past Kettles for his sixth tally of the season.
Both teams scored in the opening 56 seconds of the game, with Pensacola drawing first blood. Moments after Kevin Bergin hit the post from close range, he sent a centering pass to Hewson between the circles, and the rookie out of Bowling Green beat Kettles upstairs 34 seconds into the game for his fourth goal of the season.
Louisiana evened the score just 22 seconds later on Brown's 11th of the season and third in two games. Shawn McNeil sent a cross-ice pass from the left wing to Brown streaking down the right wing. Brown's wrister got by Gingras to knot the score.
The IceGators outshot Pensacola 15-4 in the first period but couldn't score again.
Baumgartner put the Ice Pilots back in front 2-1 at the 13:08 mark of the second with a power-play tally. After Kettles got called for interference as he tried to set a screen while his team cleared the puck out of its zone, Baumgartner redirected a Pankewicz pass past the rookie netminder for the one-goal edge. Pensacola entered the game 23rd in the ECHL on the power play.
Hewson and Baumgartner teamed to make it a two-goal advantage at the 15:33 mark, as they broke in on Kettles on a 2-on-1. Hewson, on the left wing, sent a pass to Baumgartner, who one-timed the puck over Kettles' glove.
Gingras got even better early in the third period, stopping Nathan Rempel twice in a seven-second span with 8:30 left, including a nifty cover up on a rebound of a Branislav Kvetan shot.
Louisiana finished 1-for-4 on the power play, while Pensacola was 1-for-3.
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Tuzzolino extended his point streak to a career-best 10 games, with 15 points (8g, 7a) in that span. Tuzzolino was held without a point in his first two games with the team, but has one in every game since then.
The IceGators have scored first on the road in just six of 15 games.
Five of Brown's goals have tied the game, while three have given his team the lead.
Richardson skated in his 50th game with the IceGators and picked up two assists. He has 73 points (25g, 48a) in his two stints with the team.
The IceGators have scored in the game's opening 90 seconds in four of their last six contests and have scored in the opening 2:30 of a period on 15 occasions this season. Louisiana has also scored in the final 2:30 of a period 20 times in 30 games.
Louisiana's four shots allowed in the first period were one off the team record for shots yielded in a period on the road. The IceGators tied that record October 20 at Mississippi, allowing three shots in the second period.
Former IceGator Louis Dumont didn't play for the Ice Pilots due to injury.
The IceGators are winless in their last four road games (0-1-3), one game shy of their season- and franchise-record. Louisiana was winless in five straight (0-3-2) away from the Cajundome from October 26-November 9.
McNeil has gone three games without a goal for just the second time this season. He had a span of four games without a goal from November 13-22.
The IceGators played four straight overtime/shootout games from January 10-27, 2001, going 3-0-1 in those games.
Gingras has 35 or more saves in a game eight times this season.
Louisiana had just six overtime/shootout losses last season, but it has seven already in 2002-03. The IceGators' franchise record for overtime/shootout losses in a season is 10, set in 1997-98. Five of the losses have come on the road, one shy of the franchise record, set in the 1999-00 campaign.
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