Wounded ’Hounds rebound
Newcomers played a key role in Youngstown’s 4-2
victory over Oklahoma City.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN — Because of injuries and promotions to higher-level hockey organizations, the Youngstown Steelhounds have had to do some serious patchwork to their roster the past couple of weeks.
Three new acquisitions provided the spark Friday night as the Steelhounds broke from the gate quickly to secure a workmanlike 4-2 victory over the Oklahoma City Blazers at the Chevrolet Centre.
The win moves the Steelhounds (59 points) into a third-place tie with Colorado in the Northern Conference playoff race.
With 17 games, Youngstown also remains ahead of Mississippi (56 points) for second place in the Northeast Division.
Colorado and Mississippi both lost Friday night.
The Steelhounds were playing without leading scorer Erik Przepiorka, Jeff Alcombrack, Adam Smyth and goalkeeper Brad Roberts who are all nursing injuries.
Youngstown also is without Milan Maslonka, Stephan Margeson and Kirill Starkov who have all earned promotions this season.
Against the Blazers, Ryan Bennett, who returned from the suspended list and Andrew Becker, in only his third game with the Steelhounds, both scored early in the first period to get Youngstown off to a good start.
Goalkeeper Kevin Beech earned a second start after an impressive shutout performance last Sunday against Mississippi. He responded by turning back 39 Oklahoma City shots.
Coach Kevin Kaminski was especially impressed with the Steelhounds performance.
“It’s a testament to the character in this lockerroom,” Kaminski said.
“It shows what you can do when you stick to the foundation and focus on the task.”
Kaminski said he was especially pleased with Bennett who left the team for over a month to return home to New York after playing two games in January for Youngstown.
“Bennett came to play tonight,” Kaminski said. “He did a lot out of good things out there on the ice tonight.
“It looked like he hasn’t missed a stride, like he’s been playing all season long.”
Bennett got the Steelhounds on the scoreboard first with a power-play goal with 17:59 left in the first quarter.
Becker jumped on a puck later in the period off an assist from Mark Odut and Jeff Genovy and knocked in his first goal of the season.
“It feels good to come in here and use my speed to get a goal tonight,” Becker said.
“I’m not sure what happened but I think the rebound hit off my shin pad and went in. I’ll take it.”
Oklahoma City responded with a goal by Marty Standish in the second period but Joel Irving got an unassisted goal on the power play with 10:48 left to put Youngstown up 3-1.
The Steelhounds got a goal in unique fashion in the third period when Kevin Jarman skated out of the penalty box to grab a breakaway puck.
Jarman flipped it into the back of the net with 11:11 left in the period for a 4-1 lead.
Dallas Flaman scored a goal for the Blazers late in the period for the final margin.
“It was a solid performance tonight,” Kaminski said.
“We came out of the gate jumping and got a good start. Other than a couple of turnovers that cost us two goals, we did a lot of good things tonight.”