It was not the game that many expected Thursday night. The heavily favored Soviets played relatively well, yet barely escaped with a victory as the Thrashers nearly tied the score in the games waning moments. Thanks to a referee error and retracted goal, the Comrades were able to skate away with a 6-5 victory before a capacity crowd at the Plex.
The first period had only one goal, scored on the power play by Ben Breiterman. After Mother Russia had the puck in the zone for nearly a minute, Mark Hendricks fired a shot on goal. The rebound trickled behind the sprawling goaltender and Ben tapped it home.
"Absolutely huge." Ben said. "Any goal is important, but the first goal of the game is always big. Throw in the fact that it is the very first game of the playoffs, well I may have scored the biggest goal in the Red Army's history. Seriously, retire my jersey... right fucking now."
Kraus kept the Thrashers at bay in the first despite facing a barrage of shots from in tight. Early in the second frame, with the Red Army shorthanded, Mark Hendricks proved that he can still be a threat at any man power. The winger stripped the puck at center and skated in on a breakaway. He faked left and muffed a shot that somehow found its way home. Moments later in the shift, Mark and company would capitalize again. Mark circled the net and found Ben through the seam. Ben dished it off to Neal Hendricks, and Neal potted home his first of the playoffs. It was 3-0 Red Army and things were going well.
"I knew then that we were skating and taking it to them." Mark told reporters afterward. "The problem is complacency. Once you get a lead you stop skating because you think you are too good. You should never take your foot off a snake. We took our foot off the snake and it bit us. Luckily for us, Chris Duhaime is anti-venom."
Before Chris would provide his late heroics, the Thrashers would storm back and tie with three straight tallies. Brian "Beege" Hendricks gave the advantage to Mother Russia once more with a zero angle shot that deflected off the goalie's helmet and into the goal.
"Beeeeeeeege!" An elated Beege yelled.
The Thrashers would again even things up at four with a few minutes to play in the third, yet despite a plethora of power play opportunities they were unable to take the lead.
Enter CD 2.
Chris Duhaime, a god amongst men, scored on the doorstep with 90 seconds to play. Off the ensuing face-off at center, he finagled his way through the defense and scored again on a breakaway.
"Call me the Messiah of the season." An angelic Chris said as he levitated on his cloud.
The Thrashers would score with 7 seconds to play to bring it to within one, but that's as close as they would come as Kraus steered away their final shot (the one that came as the clock was running). The horn sounded, and #6 advanced to round #2.
The Soviets will play Arrr on Sunday at 9:00 pm. They one meeting the two teams had this season ended in a Communist victory with the score 5-1.
THREE STARS
#3: Andy Schram
#2: Mark Hendricks
#1: Chris Duhaime
No comments:
Post a Comment