Wildcats Split On the Road
February 23, 2009 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wichita Falls Wildcats News Release
Two goals in the span of a minute by Springfield were all the Springfield Junior Blues needed in their shutout of the Wildcats. Goaltender C.J. Groh stood tall in net, stopping all 27 shots he faced, while the Wildcats' Nick Hopper stopped 33 of 35.
Springfield got on the board late in the first via the power play, with Jack Callahan firing a low hard shot from the point that hit off a Wildcat in front, giving Springfield a 1-0 lead with only 17.7 seconds left. Only 30 ticks into the second, they added another on Trent Frey's redirection of a Randy Cure shot for a 2-0 lead. Jon Gaffney would add an empty-netter late in the third to ice the game at 3-0.
"We didn't play a full sixty minutes tonight," said Wildcats head coach John Bowkus. "We had to shuffle our lines a bit, some guys didn't get a lot of ice time because they weren't getting things done."
On Saturday, two first period goals put the Wildcats ahead permanently en route to the weekend split with the Junior Blues. Philip Graveline stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced, while Adam Kuhn, Sean Coffey, and Brett Hartung scored the Wildcats' goals.
Kuhn's goal came off a feed from behind the net, beating C.J. Groh through the five hole to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. Sean McKenzie and Zack Rourke assisted on the goals. Springfield would tie it up a few minutes later with Kyle Verbeek dancing through a few Wildcats before ripping a shot past Graveline to tie the game at 1. Four minutes later, Sean Coffey took a pass from Victor Karlsson and fired off a shot from just inside the blue line to put the Wildcats on top 2-1.
Neither team scored in the second, but on a power play in the third, Brett Hartung found the back of the net for a 3-1 lead, with assists going to Ryan Amin and Chad Hudson.
Coffey's goal, the game-winner, resulted in his getting the second star of the game, while first star went to Graveline.
The Wildcats will play the Junior Blues again on March 27 and 28.
North American Hockey League Stories from February 23, 2009
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