The Return of the Mac Leads Gems to 4-1 Win

November 11, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Dayton Gems News Release


Dayton, OH- After two tough and competitive contests with the first place Colorado Eagles last weekend, the Gems were looking to get back on the winning track tonight against their rival the Fort Wayne Komets as the two teams met for the first of 14 regular season contests scheduled this season.

For Dayton, it was their first weeknight game (other than a Friday) this season and the first time the Komets were coming to town since the two teams met in early October for two pre-season games. Leading his team onto the ice for the first time this season was goaltender Derek MacIntyre giving Jeff Jakaitis a game off after Jakaitis had started every game (4-2-1 record) up to this point. Fort Wayne came out firing with 13 shots in the first period and caught the Gems off guard with their aggressive style of play on the road. MacIntyre was up to the task and kept all 13 out of the back of his net and Komets starter Kevin Reiter answered the call stopping all six Dayton shots to keep the game scoreless after one period of play.

The Gems broke the scoreless tie within the first two minutes of the second period when Brett Lutes slammed home a rebound that came off of Reiter's chest pads to give either team the first lead of the night at 1-0. Seven minutes after Lutes's goal, Mike Vaskivuo completed a perfect pass from Tim Hartung (who was back in the lineup after missing the last couple of games) to make it 2-0. MacIntyre repeated his feat of stopping 13 more shots in the second to give the Gems a two-goal lead heading into the third and final period.

Rookie defenseman Nick Canzanello pushed the lead to three goals with his first goal as a professional when he slid home another Reiter rebound just 1:32 into the third. The Komets would not go quietly into the Dayton night and pelted away 19 more shots towards MacIntyre in the third. MacIntyre would lose the shutout bid when Sean O'Connor put the Komets on the board with a power play goal at the 12:23 mark. Vaskivuo threw in his second goal of the night (and the Gems first short-handed goal of the season) when he found an empty net in the Fort Wayne zone with just under a minute to play to send the Gems on their way to the 4-1 victory. With the win, the Gems improve to 5-2-1(11 points) overall and 4-2-1 on home ice at Hara Arena.

Other than the terrific goaltending by MacIntyre, the Gems as a team also deserve credit for the win because the special teams came up really big throughout the night killing off eight of nine power plays against. Also lost in the shuffle were the true team sacrifices the forwards and defenseman were making continuously blocking shots and getting in the way of the Komets scoring chances.

Season tickets are on sale now! Full and partial ticket plans are available. For more information call the Gems offices at 937-275-7777 or log onto our website at www.daytongems.com . You can also catch us on facebook at facebook.com/daytongems. The Gems are back home tomorrow night, Friday, November 12th at 7:30 p.m. when they take on the Arizona Sundogs for the first time ever. Tomorrow night's game (November 12th) will be Christopher Walken theme night. There will be a special Public Address Announcer doing an impersonation of Walken all night. Also included in the theme, the first 500 fans through the door will receive a free cow bell and Walken mask, the Gems intro theme will be changed to "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult and all of the prizes that night will be Christopher Walken DVDs. Tomorrow night's game is also the second Student ID night, all students ages 14 and up are eligible for a BUY-ONE GET-ONE FREE ticket offer when they show their student ID at the Hara Arena box office. The Kettering Medical Center is proud to be the official title sponsor of the Gems for the 2010-11 season.



Central Hockey League Stories from November 11, 2010


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