Sundogs Close Out Road Trip with 6-2 Win Over Blazers
December 15, 2007 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Arizona Sundogs News Release
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. - In their seventh-straight and 12th of 15 away from Tim's Toyota Center, Arizona traveled to Oklahoma City to take on the Blazers Saturday night at the Ford Center. Arizona rode multiple-point outings from Tyler Redenbach, Alex Leavitt, Dusty Collins and Dan Laperriere en route to a 6-2 win. With two goals and two assists on the night, Redenbach extends his league-best point streak to 21 games and takes over the CHL scoring lead with 44 points (12g/32a) in 21 games.
Oklahoma City dominated the first fifteen minutes of play and capitalized on an early scoring chance at 7:47 of the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Jason Weitzel and Ryan Watson teamed up to find an open Marc Connors between the circles as he tallied his eighth goal of the season. The Sundogs picked up play in the opening period's final five minutes as the trio of Dusty Collins, Tyler Redenbach and Alex Leavitt gathered two goals separated by less than two minutes for a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission. At the 15:57 mark, Collins took passes from Redenbach and Leavitt and lifted a backhand shot over Blazers netminder Jason Wolfe to tie the game at 1-1. With 2:14 to play in the period, Collins once again teamed up with Redenbach and Leavitt to collect his club's first powerplay goal of the night and league-best 39th on the season for a 2-1 lead.
CHL rookie-leading scorer Mark Kolanos notched his 13th goal of the year 1:57 into the middle period as the Sundogs converted for their second powerplay goal of the game. Defensemen David Schlemko and Dan Laperriere collected assists on the Kolanos tally. At 7:58 of the second, Redenbach increased Arizona's lead to 4-1, grabbing his club's third goal with the man advantage. The Coyotes' prospect skated through the neutral zone and fired a forehand shot past Wolfe for a 4-1 advantage. Leavitt assisted on the play for his sixth point in two nights along with Laperriere for his second of the night. Following the Redenbach marker and allowing four goals on 13 shots, Oklahoma City pulled Wolfe in favor of backup netminder Sean Connors. With 1:08 to play in the second frame, Redenbach took passes from Leavitt and Laperriere and beat goaltender Connors on the backhand for his second goal and fourth point of the night to push the lead to 5-1 heading into the third period.
Oklahoma City cut Arizona's lead back to three as Garret Prosofsky tallied his club's first powerplay marker of the game, beating Bill Zaniboni low stick side two minutes into the third period. Ryan Watson and Stacey Bauman assisted on the play with one second remaining on a Matt Suderman penalty. Arizona answered back to regain a four-goal lead as Rob Lehtinen and Olivier Latendresse skated in two-on-one. Lehtinen used Latendresse as a decoy and squeezed the puck beneath the arm of Connors for his second of the year. Collins and Sean Sullivan were credited with helpers on the play for the 6-2 final.
Bill Zaniboni appeared in net for Arizona for the second consecutive game and stopped 22 of 24 shots to improve 6-3-1 on the season. Jason Wolfe started in goal for Oklahoma City and stopped nine of 13 shots before being replaced with backup goaltender Sean Connors. Connors blocked 19 of 21 in his relief effort. The Sundogs finished 3-for-12 on the man advantage while the Blazers converted on 1 of 7 chances.
With the win, the Sundogs improve to 16-6-1 on the season and hold a three-point advantage over second place Odessa in the Southwest Division. Arizona now returns to Prescott Valley for six straight to close out the year after going 5-2-0 on their seven-game road trip. Next up for the Sundogs are the Corpus Christi Rayz on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at Tim's Toyota Center. Game time is set for 7:05pm. Tickets are available by phone at 1-866-4-GET-TIX (1-866-443-8849), online at www.gettix.net and in person at the Tim's Toyota Center Box Office.
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