SteelHounds upend best team in CHL

The SteelHounds’ Jeff Alcombrack suffered a head injury in the 5-3 win over the Rage.

By GREG GULAS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — Talk about going from the frying pan and into the fire.

The Youngstown SteelHounds, losers of two of three contests last weekend to the Northeast Division leading Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, played host Friday to the best team in the Central Hockey League, the Rocky Mountain Rage.

Looking to make a statement, the SteelHounds relied on the steady goaltending of Andy Franck and three assists off the stick of Chris Richards as they defeated the Rage, 5-3 in a Central Hockey league game at the Chevrolet Centre.

Richards’ three-point night now gives him 601 career points, becoming just the 10th player in league history to reach that plateau.

“Every Friday game is a statement game for us, but it was especially great to get the first one of the series under our belt. Hitting the 600 point mark in my career is a really nice feeling, but the truth is that it makes me feel old,” Richards said.

“I’ve had some good seasons with hopefully more to come,” he added.

The Rage (28-6-3) is just a second year CHL franchise with Friday’s game being their 100th all-time. A year ago, they were winless in four outings against the SteelHounds (22-13-2) but currently stand atop the Northwest division standings with a league-best 11-3-1 road mark.

Something was bound to give and it started in the first period when newly-acquired SteelHound Eric Main gave Youngstown the early goal advantage with his netter at 11:34 of the opening period.

His goal came after a 22-minute delay in the action and a disallowed goal; the former belonging to SteelHounds defenseman Jeff Alcombrack, who was carted off after suffering an on-ice head injury and the latter when the referees said no to Eric Przepiorka’s wrister.

Main’s goal was his third of the season and his first as a SteelHound, and it couldn’t have been more opportunistic.

“I got the puck from Joel [Irving] in good position, shot it to the glove side of their goalie and it went in. We just want to be the best and in order to do so, then we must beat the best. This was a big win for us,” Main said.

Steve Birnstill’s power play goal gave Youngstown a two-goal advantage just 2:08 later, but Rocky Mountain’s Daymen Rycroft, the league’s top goal producer with 32, cut the lead in half when his slap shot connected at 14:38 on the power play.

It was his 15th goal with the man advantage.

Kurtis Dulle’s second tally of the season at 3:27 of the second period then staked the SteelHounds to a 3-1 lead. It was the only score by either side in the period.

Irving’s 15th goal at 7:00 of the final period then gave Youngstown a 4-1 advantage, but consecutive goals by Rocky Mountain’s Simon Watson (12:50) and Trevor Weisgerber (17:25) cut the lead to 4-3 with less than three minutes to play.

When Rage goalie Scott Reid was pulled in favor of an extra skater with a little over a minute remaining, Youngstown’s Kevin Jarman put the icing on the cake with his 11th goal of the year, an empty netter with 43 seconds remaining.

“We were short three players to begin with so to lose Jeff [Alcombrack] early in the first period and then play the way we did, shows you the character of this team.

“Besides all of the turnovers we stuck to the game plan, and my hat goes off to Andy [Franck] for his excellent play in goal tonight,” Youngstown head coach Kevin Kaminski said.

“We knew we’d be in for a battle all weekend so to get this first one is a big plus. They’re the best for a reason.

“Also, I liked Eric [Main] when we played him in Texas. He has a good offensive side, plays great defense and jumped in and took the bull right by the horns,” Kaminski added.

The Rage held a 36-28 shot advantage with Franck picking up the win in goal. He is 13-6-1 on the season.

Rage goalie Scott Reid took the loss and fell to 19-4-2.