SteelHounds rally to tie then fall in shootout

Youngstown scored the tying goal after pulling goalie Andy Franck.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Steelhounds stormed back from a two-goal deficit in the final 3:34 to tie the score at 5-5 Saturday against Northeast Division rival Mississippi

Minutes later, the SteelHounds fell short in a shootout, 6-5, at the Chevrolet Centre.

The Steelhounds gained one point despite losing but now trail the RiverKings by a point (56-55) for second place in the Northeast Division standings.

Youngstown remains in the fifth and final playoff spot for the Northern Conference.

The Steelhounds (26-16-3) will get a chance to overtake the RiverKings with a victory today at 4:05 p.m.

Youngstown trailed 5-3 with about three minutes remaining in regulation when Jason Baird scored his 10th goal of the season on an assist from Chris Richards.

With 44.9 seconds left and the Steelhounds on a man-advantage by pulling goalkeeper Andy Franck, defenseman Bryan Lachapelle scored his third goal of the year on an assist from Eric Przepiorka and Eric Main.

“Obviously our guys never quit,” Steelhounds coach Kevin Kaminski said. “That was a great thing for us tonight.

“I thought we played a pretty solid game tonight. It’s a huge point for us,” Kaminski said.

The Steelhounds controlled the five-minute overtime session and outshot Mississippi 5-1 but couldn’t get the puck past goalkeeper Ian Keserich.

In the shootout, RiverKings’ Rick Kozak was credited with the game-winning goal when he tallied on the visitors’ fourth try.

Back-to-back attempts by Petr Pohl and Przepiorka on shots four and five of the five-shot shootout were blocked by Keserich.

It looked like it was going to be a good night for the Steelhounds as they scored twice early in the second period on goals by Kurtis Dulle and Pohl to go ahead 3-1.

The RiverKings rallied back with two goals in the period by Kozak and Ryan Campbell on a short-handed goal to tie the game.

“That was a huge momentum swing,” Kaminski said. “We were up 3-1 and we had a chance to bury them. We had a chance to put a fork in them and we didn’t.

“We had a bad penalty to give them one goal and then they got the short-handed goal.”

Mississippi seemed to take all the steam out of the Steelhounds by scoring twice in the third period.

Sheldon Wenzel scored on a deflection shot off his stick with 7:30 left in regulation and the RiverKings followed that up with a goal by Chad Woollard with 4:43 left.

“This was a big comeback,” Kaminski said. “It’s nice that we got a point tonight but we would have loved to had two.”