Ridder's Natural Hat Trick Rescues Catters
March 7, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Texas Wildcatters News Release
Beaumont, TX--The Texas Wildcatters (45-6-3-6) gave up a four-goal first period lead before Troy Riddle took matters into his own hands, scoring a natural hat-trick in the third period to down the Pensacola Ice Pilots 7-4 Friday night in Ford Arena.
Kevin Baker scored the first Texas goal just 2:31 into the game, taking advantage of a Pensacola turnover and putting home a feed from Riddle to give Texas the early lead.
Dan Welch would weave through traffic and make a beautiful move to the glove side of Ice Pilots goalie Cam Ellsworth, putting the puck into a virtually open net to give the Catters a two-goal advantage at 5:03.
The lead would swell to three goals as Colin Nicholson stayed hot with his fifth goal of the season at 15:56. John Adams would find the back of the net at 16:52, and with the score 4-0 the game would appear headed towards being a laugher as the teams hit the locker rooms for the first intermission.
Pensacola (16-35-3-4), who has developed a recent reputation of being a strong team in the second and third periods despite their division-worst 39 points, clawed their way back into the game with two second-period power play goals just 31 seconds apart. The first goal came off the stick of Adam Hobson at 11:08 and the second beat Texas goalie Kris Tebbs at 11:39 when Bryan McGregor put home a rebound to make the score 4-2.
Trailing by the same score in the third period, a third-attempt shot by Pensacola's Mathieu Roy would bring the game to 4-3. When Brian Esner knotted the game with a short handed goal at 7:24, the ECHL-leading Catters looked like anything but the top team in the league.
Enter Mr. Riddle.
Riddle's first goal came on the power play-Texas finished 2-for-10 on the man advantage-as he took a nice feed across the goal mouth from Baker and one-timed it into the cage from the back post to reclaim the lead for the Catters at 8:40.
An almost identical play three minute s later would result in his second goal of the night, assisted once again by Baker as well as defenseman Jonathan Paiement, playing in front of the Beaumont faithful for the first time since returning from a lengthy AHL call up. Riddle finished off the natural hat-trick-three goals scored in succession by the same player-with his sixth goal of the year at 19:24.
The Wildcatters pounded Pensacola with 44 shots on the evening while Tebbs secured his fifth consecutive win for Texas with 25 saves. Tebbs has not lost in regulation since joining the Catters two weeks ago, accumulating a 5-0-0-1 record.
Burger King Weekend continues tomorrow as the Ice Pilots and Catters square off in the first-ever "Youth Inspiration Night" game at 7:05. The series concludes Sunday afternoon at 4:05.
The Texas Wildcatters are the proud ECHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild and the AHL's Houston Aeros. Book your group with the Catters today, call (409) 951-5500!
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