CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SteelHounds win 5-2 behind Richards

He scored his first hat trick against the Forth Worth Brahmas.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Chris Richards scored three goals for his first hat trick as a member of the Youngstown SteelHounds, leading the team to a 5-2 win over the Forth Worth Brahmas in a fight- and penalty-marred Central Hockey League game Wednesday night.
"I was getting a lot of passes from the guys. I should have had five goals," said Richards, a former Ohio State hockey player, who has 21 goals for the SteelHounds.
"I felt good and had a lot of energy and there was a lot of space out there and I just took advantage of it," he said.
Richards said that he never had a hat trick with Ohio State, but did get his first as a pro several years ago.
"I'm not a big goal scorer," he said.
'Hounds lead series 6-0
The SteelHounds (22-35-5) beat the Brahmas (17-37-8) for the sixth time this season before 3,311 fans at the Chevrolet Centre to stay perfect against them. Youngstown's first five wins in the series were in Forth Worth. The teams return to the Chevrolet Centre Friday and Saturday, both at 7:05 p.m., for the final games of the season.
"He's a great player," said Brahmas' coach Guy Larose of Richards. "They have a great line [of forwards]. It is one of the better lines in the league. [Richards] got his chances and he capitalized."
Jeff Christian also led the SteelHounds with a goal and three assists. The four points gave him 100 for the season.
Darryl Lloyd also scored a goal and had an assist for Youngstown. Mario Chinelli had two assists, while Joey Sewell, Matt Hanson, Simo Pulkki and Ben Manny had one each.
Jimmy Sokol had a goal and assist to lead Forth Worth, while Ty Hennes had the Brahmas' other goal. Cory Stillman, Vladimir Hartinger and Ben Gustavson contributed one assist each.
Youngstown built a 2-0 lead on goals by Richards and Lloyd and almost made it 3-0 in the first period, but Christian's obvious goal was disallowed because the linesman didn't see it go in.
The crowd roared when Christian scored and observers watching a video replay of the shot agreed the puck crossed the goal line.
Sokol cut the Brahmas' deficit to 2-1 early in the second period, but Richards and Christian scored back-to-back goals to rebuild Youngstown's lead to 4-1 before Hennes connected to make it 4-2 late in the second period.
Richards got his third goal and hat trick with just 44 seconds remaining in the game.
Fights galore
A big free-for-all broke out in the first period and there were several other battles during the game which saw 27 penalties -- 15 by the Brahmas.
"Their sixth guy [Chris Bain] jumped off the bench and sucker-punched one of our guys [Chris Shaffer], and [Kris] Mallette stepped in," said Youngstown coach J.F. Laforest, referring to the first free-for-all and ensuing fight between Bain and Mallette that perpetuated a near-melee on the ice.
"That was classless [and] we were shorthanded because Mallette got kicked out of the game."
Said Larose, "We lost [Bain] in the first altercation. Bain was hurt in the fight. It's tough to rebound from that."
Larose criticized the SteelHounds for taking out goalie David St. Germain with 20 seconds remaining in the game to add a sixth attacker in an attempt to score a sixth goal.
"The score was 5-2. The game is over. There was no need to pull the goalie," said Larose. "It's an unwritten rule in hockey that you don't do that."
But Laforest had no qualms about wanting that sixth goal.
"Another goal adds to the tally and it gives the fans something extra to cheer about," he said.
Youngstown outshot Forth Worth, 38-22, including 16-8 in the first period. St. Germain had 20 saves to Larry Sterling's 33 for the Brahmas.
kovach@vindy.com