RiverBlades dump Kingfish, 5-3

Published on December 13, 2002 under ECHL (ECHL)
Baton Rouge Kingfish News Release


Three third period goals by the Kingfish and 38 saves by Brian Leitza wasn't enough as the Kingfish fell to the Arkansas RiverBlades, 5-3 at the Riverside Centroplex.

Arkansas opened up a 5-0 lead after the first two periods as they led 3-0 after the opening stanza.

Ernie Hartlieb beat Leitza at the 5:03 mark of the first period off an assist from Buddy Smith and Eric Long to give the RiverBlades a 1-0 lead.

Mike Cirillo made it 2-0 in favor of Arkansas at the 16:34 mark as he punched one past Leitza. Long again added an assist as Terry Marchant also added a helper on the goal.

Less than two minutes later, Gary Toor gave Arkansas the 3-0 lead. Ernie Hartlieb and Jason Bermingham added the assists on the goal.

The Kingfish were out shot in the first period 23-6, despite being shorthanded just one time in the stanza.

Arkansas extended their lead to four as Mike Renzi picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone as he came out of the penalty box on a break away and flipped one by Leitza at the midway mark of the second period. Long added his third assist of the evening while Marchant added his second helper of the game.

With less than two minutes left in the second, Arkansas took a 5-0 lead as Mike Cirillo beat Leitza over the shoulder. Renzi added the assist on the goal.

The Kingfish stormed back in the third as they tallied three goals in the final stanza.

Jason Norrie punched a rebound past Jason Saal at the 5:12 mark of the period to put the Kingfish on the board. Joe Guenther and Bryan Richardson added the assist on the goal.

Three minutes later, the Kingfish cut the Arkansas lead to three as Forrest Gore tipped in a Trevor Demmans shot from the point. Richardson added his second assist of the evening on the power play goal.

A little past the midway mark of the final stanza, Bryan Richardson extended his goals scoring streak to seven games as he slipped past the Arkansas defense off a neutral zone face-off and fired a shot past Saal to cut the lead to two. Richardson scored the unassisted goal on the power play.

Despite going 2-5 on the power play and preventing Arkansas from scoring on the man advantage in five tries, the Kingfish were out shot 43-26 in the loss.

The Kingfish host the Mississippi Sea Wolves in game six of the Coca-Cola cup tomorrow night at the Centroplex at 7:05 p.m. Catch all the action on Baton Rouge's Best R & B, 104.5 WZRB beginning with the Kingfish pre-game show at 6:50 p.m.

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ECHL Stories from December 13, 2002


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