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ECHL Norfolk Admirals

Steelheads Take Series Opener in Wild One

November 16, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)
Norfolk Admirals News Release


NORFOLK, VA - The Norfolk Admirals (1-8-3-0) continued to struggle on home ice, as they fell to the Idaho Steelheads (8-5-1-0) 6-4 in a high-scoring and penalty-ridden on Wednesday night.

It only took the visiting Steelheads 15 seconds to get on board in the opening period, as Travis Ewanyk stole the puck from Admirals defenseman Gabriel Verpaelst, and preceded to fire a wrister from the blue line. The drive went past Eetu Laurikainen's glove hand to take the wind out of the Admirals sails early.

Despite the deflating start, Josh Brittain set up a back-door equalizer for John Dunbar not much later, at the 4:53 mark. Zach Pochiro picked up an assist as well, his first point since his first game with the team a few weeks ago.

18 seconds after Dunbar's tally, Anthony Calabrese fed the puck up the ice to Jeff DiNallo, with John Kurtz flanking them into the zone. DiNallo quickly connected with Kurtz as he scored his first in his return to the Admirals and took Admirals take the lead 2 -1.

With 2:41 left in the period, Kyle Jean set up Caleb Herbert's third of the season, and Idaho tied the game up 2 to 2 before the two team's split for the intermission.

The Admirals would take the lead back at 9:42 of the middle period, all thanks to Jeff DiNallo's first goal of his professional career. Newcomer Brodie Dupont provided the assist on DiNallo's marker in his first game in an Admiral uniform as well, making it a 3-2 game.

Entering tonight's contest with the second-best power play in the league, the Steelheads would use that to their advantage to bounce back. Idaho capitalized on a man advantage courtesy of Joe Faust 4:13 left in the second, with helpers coming from Will Merchant and Jefferson Dahl.

Moments later the Admirals would go down a man again, with Paul Rodrigues being sent to the box for slashing. Merchant would make the Admirals pay as he rifled in the puck past Laurikainen, and the Steelheads took back the lead, 4-3.

With the visitors leading by one, chaos broke out at the second period buzzer, leading to 66 combined penalty minutes from both sides. Gabriel Verpaelst and Sam Noreau received game ejections as a result, as well as Trevor Ewanyk of Idaho. This led to the Steelheads starting the third period on a five-on-three, something they would strike on just 29 seconds in, completely wiping all of what Admirals momentum was left from the stir-up. The goal was Will Merchant's second of the night, the eventual first-star.

The ball would continue to roll for the Steelheads, as just two minutes later, Jefferson Dahl would get his fifth of the season. Travis Walsh and Rob Linsmayer earned assists on the second-to-last goal of the night for the Steelheads.

Despite coming up short in the long run, the Admirals would finally earn their first shorthanded goal of the season from leading point getter Nick MacNeil. It was #12's fourth of the season, pushing his best point total to seven.

6-4 would be the final score Wednesday night, the Steelheads earning the first match of the series.

The two teams will face each other again Friday and Saturday at Scope with a 7:30 and 7:15 puck drop. Tickets for both games are on sale now and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com as well as at the Norfolk Scope box office. For more information on the team, be sure to follow and like the team on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat at (NorfolkAdmirals).

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ECHL Stories from November 16, 2016


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