NAHL Topeka Pilots

Roadrunners Close out Tornado

April 13, 2012 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Topeka Pilots News Release


The Topeka RoadRunners earned a fifth consecutive trip to the NAHL South Division Finals after completing a three game series sweep over the Texas Tornado on Thursday night.

Topeka scored first in Game 3 when Kyle Sharkey buried a low shot at 6:41 of the opening period. Kevin Patterson headmanned the puck up the right wing boards to Ben Bahe who then snapped a pass across to the left wing where Sharkey ripped it home past Joakim Jutras for a 1-0 lead that stood through the end of the period.

Texas tied it up at 11:09 of the second period when Jordan Lovick pounced on the rebound of a Nick Neville shot from the left point. Topeka retook the lead at 14:49 when Kevin Patterson scored from the right point after a clean James Ring faceoff win that Dan Dupell pushed back to Patterson for the onetimer that a Texas defender screened the goalie on. Topeka's 2-1 lead was on the scoreboard at the end of the second.

The Tornado came out and tied it up early in the third at the :59 second mark when Jordan Lovick roofed his second goal of the night from the right wing faceoff circle on a RoadRunner defensive zone turnover and the game was tied once again. Lovick completed the hat trick when he put home the rebound of a Mychal Monteith shot at 8:01 and Texas had their first lead since Marc Biggs scored at 19:59 of the first period in Game 1. The lead evaporated with 3:28 left in regulation. James Ring forced a Texas turnover with a nice check on the right wing boards in his own zone, tying up Jordan Greenberg. Jake Lynes picked the puck off the boards and raced through the neutral zone getting through two Tornado defenders along the way before snapping a pass across to Kevin Patterson on the left wing who ripped a wrister past Jutras to knot things up at 3-3, his second goal of the night and third of the playoffs. The period ended with the teams still tied, setting up the second overtime game of the series.

It didn't take long for the game to reach a conclusion. With some solid forechecking and offensive zone cycling, Topeka closed out the game and the series when the line of Richard Young, Brian Christie, and Anders Schultz connected for the game winner. All three touched the puck while cycling through the deep part of the Texas zone before Christie came off the right wing boards to fire a shot on net which Jutras denied but Christie's puckhandling drew the attention of two Tornado players allowing Young to slip between them where, uncontested, he gathered the rebound and easily buried the backhander at 3:07 of overtime to send Topeka back to the South Division Finals. Peter Traber stopped 25 shots in the win, improving to 3-0 in the playoffs with a 1.84 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.

Topeka will face the Amarillo Bulls in a rematch of the 2010-11 South Division Finals, a series Topeka let slip away in 5 games. The series is set to begin Friday April 20 in Amarillo, with the winner of the series advancing to the Robertson Cup Tournament from May 3-8, hosted by the Texas Tornado. Amarillo will have home ice advantage in the series, having posted the NAHL's best regular season record at 46-7-7. All games will be available for pay-per-view with FASThockey.com with audio streaming available at countrylegends1069.com. The South Division Finals schedule has Games 1 and 2 in Amarillo on Friday and Saturday April 20-21, Games 3 and 4 in Topeka Thursday and Friday April 26-27, and if necessary, Game 5 in Amarillo on Monday April 30.

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North American Hockey League Stories from April 13, 2012


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