Sundogs Pound Colorado 8-4 in Regular Season Finale

Published on March 25, 2007 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Arizona Sundogs News Release


PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. - The Arizona Sundogs Hockey Club, in its last regular-season contest of the 2006-07 schedule, hosted the Colorado Eagles Saturday night in front of a sold out crowd at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley. With the Southwest Division title still a possibility for Arizona and Colorado chasing a third-straight Governor's Cup, both teams had something to play for. Arizona would power their way to an 8-4 win over the Eagles and secure the number four seed in the Southern Conference playoffs. The Sundogs will face the Corpus Christi Rayz in the first round of the CHL Playoffs on Friday, March 30th in Corpus Christi, Texas. The first home game for the Sundogs will be on Wednesday, April 4th at Tim's Toyota Center. Tickets go on sale Thursday, March 29th at 10:00am. Game time is set for 7:00pm. The Sundogs finish their Inaugural Season in second place in the Southwest Division with a 34-28-2 record for 70 points.

The two clubs would exchange quality scoring chances but midway through the opening frame Arizona would be the team to grab the game's first goal. Defenseman Dan Laperriere would grab his third goal in two games as passes from Ladislav Kouba and Chris Greene would leave Eagles' netminder Marco Emond's stick side unprotected. The power play goal would come at the 10:24 mark. A little more than one minute later Colorado would answer on a goal from Ryan Tobler. Ed McGrane and Aaron Schneekloth would assist on Tobler's 27th of the season.

Just 38 seconds into the second period, Brent Kelly would receive a pass from Chris Bartolone and skate into the Colorado zone, firing the puck from the top of the circles past Emond. The shorthanded goal would be his league-leading 42nd goal of the season, giving the Sundogs a 2-1 lead. Less than two minutes later the Sundogs would take a two goal lead as Max Gordichuk would tally his first professional goal. Kelly would grab his second point of the game as he and Karl Sellan would assist on the play. The Sundogs' two goals in less than two minutes would spark fights between Arizona's Jonathan Bernier and Colorado's Ryan Tobler. Immediately following the Bernier-Tobler tilt Cedric Bernier and Jay Birnie would drop the gloves. After all was said and done 20 total penalty minutes would be handed out in a two-second span. At the 5:06 mark Karl Sellan would notch his second point of the night taking a pass from Jon Landry and roommate Jordan Mowbray to beat Emond glove side. Arizona's fourth goal and third in the first five minutes of the middle period would prompt the Eagles to pull Emond in exchange for backup netminder Paulo Colaiacovo. Arizona would continue to pressure Colorado and at 10:32 of the second Chris Bartolone would grab Arizona's second power play goal of the game, this time on a 5-on-3 advantage. Laperriere and Cory Stillman would garner helpers on the goal. With 8:02 to play in the period the Sundogs would continue to pull away as Laperriere would steal his second marker of the game, sliding the puck through the legs of Colaiacovo to push the score to 6-1. Kouba and Stillman would be credited with assists on the goal. With just over two minutes left in the period Landry would grab his second point of the game on a goal from Adam Campbell and David Lizotte. With 26 seconds left before the second intermission Sellan would compile his second goal and third point on the night from Kelly and Laperriere to give his club a seven goal lead going into the third period. A total of 87 penalty minutes would be distributed between the two clubs in the second period, with 12 penalties of the fighting variety.

In the third, Colorado would score at the 10:58 mark, their first goal since 11:49 of the first period. The 5-on-3 power play goal would be tallied by Schneekloth for his second point of the game from Brad Williamson and Greg Pankewicz. Less than one minute later and still on a 5-on-4 power play, the Eagles' Brent Hughes would score on a cross-ice pass from Scott Polaski and Sean Robertson. At 15:41, the Eagles would tally their third power play goal of the period as McGrane would find the back of the net from Hughes and Williamson capping out the night's scoring.

Mike Wall would appear in net for Arizona stopping 29 of 33 shots for his sixth win of the year. Marco Emond would start in net for Colorado stopping 7 of 11 shots before being pulled and replaced by Paulo Colaiacovo. The back up netminder would deflect 22 of 26 shots in the loss. Arizona would covert on 4-of-10 power play chances while Colorado would finish 3-for-7 with the man advantage.

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Central Hockey League Stories from March 25, 2007


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