Saturday, December 3, 2005
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- In hockey, what you can't see can hurt you at times.
Like Youngstown SteelHounds' goalie David St. Germain, who didn't see the puck coming on a long shot taken by Matt McNeely of the Lubbock Cotton Kings with less than three minutes left in a Central Hockey League game Friday night.
McNeely's 20-foot goal into an unguarded net on an assist from Kyle Nosan with 17:26 gone enabled the Cotton Kings to pad their 4-3 lead, and give them a 5-3 win over the SteelHounds before about 2,000 fans at the Chevrolet Centre.
"St. Germain didn't see the puck and couldn't react properly," said SteelHounds' coach Jean Laforest. "That shot should have never got to the net. It should have been blocked."
McNeely's insurance goal doomed the SteelHounds (6-10-1), who had rallied to cut the deficit to one goal for the second time in the game, 4-3, on Jeff Alcombrack's close-range, power play goal about 14 minutes earlier, on assists from Jeff Christian and Jonathan Gagnow.
Youngstown enjoyed a 5-3 man advantage on Alcombrack's goal, but then was unable to muster any offense after that before getting burned by McNeely and the Cotton Kings (10-7-1).
The two teams return to the Chevrolet Centre tonight for another game that starts at 7:05.
Three power play goals
All three of the SteelHounds' goals came on power plays -- the other two scores were by Matt Nicholson and Chris Richards -- and that pleased Laforest.
"We were 3-for-8 [on power plays] which is 37.5 percent-- one of our highest of the year," said Laforest. But he was unhappy that Lubbock went 3-for-10 on their power plays.
"Tonight we were 70 percent (3-for-10) on our penalty killing, meaning [Lubbock] scored on 30 percent of their power play opportunities. We took advantage of our power plays but we didn't stop them on their power plays."
The Cotton Kings' biggest power play goal was Paul Fioroni's short tap-in on assists from Noal Graham and Jan Melichercik in with 1:00 elapsed in the third period, that gave them a 4-2 lead.
"It's the small things. You got to do the little things," said Laforest, like blocking McNeely's shot that St. Germain didn't see coming. And, "You have to clear the puck out of the net."
But the biggest reason for the SteelHounds demise was a lack of aggressiveness on offense. Lubbock enjoyed a 41-26 shots advantage, including 17-6 in the first period and 12-7 in the third period.
Lubbock emphasizes offense
Cotton Kings' coach Chris Dashney said the team wants to shoot as much as possible.
"It's not a big secret: We try to put the pucks in the net, to shoot as much as possible. We try to wear the other team down," said Dashney. "We're on the road and we try to keep it simple as possible."
Dashney said his team emphasizes aggressiveness on offense. "The new rules [in hockey] allow us to open [the offense] up. We try to get on top of teams."
But he lamented his team's nine penalties, which helped the SteelHounds score their three goals.
Of course, Youngstown had 11 penalties which helped Lubbock score three power play goals.
One bright spot for the SteelHounds was that they scored first in the game on Matt Nicholson's power play goal at 3:44 in the first period on an assist by Darryl Lloyd. Nicholson snuck in the puck just to the side of Lubbock goalie Lance Leslie.
Cotton Kings rally for 3 goals
But the Cotton Kings rallied for three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead in the first period.
Ryan Moren tied it at 1-1 at 6:12 ET with a short shot on assists from Fioroni and Graham, and Melichercik tallied just 45 seconds later at 6:57 ET on assists by Fioroni and Graham to give Lubbock at 2-1 lead. Melichercik's shot bounced off St. Germain and trickled into the net.
Then Emery Olauson connected at 14:43 ET on a powerplay with an assist from Bobby Brown, to pad Lubbock's lead to 3-1.
The SteelHounds sliced the count to 3-2 with the only goal of the second period, as Chris Richards scored from up close at 13:11 ET on Jeff Christian's assist.
St. Germain had 36 saves while Leslie had 23.
kovach@vindy.com