For the second time in as many games, the Red Army entered the third period tied at three goals a piece. And, for the second time in as many games, Ben Breiterman and Mark Hendricks provided some timely scoring while Andy Schram staved off every shot he faced, and the Soviets improved to 6-6 on the season, sliding into the #5 spot in the standings.
But on a night when there were several story lines to cover, the one to note was not the continuing solid play of Schram, or the defensive play of Tony Horton and Pat King, or the 3rd period scoring machines that are Breiterman and Hendricks, no, the story of the game was Steve Hand scoring a hat trick with three goals on the doorstep.
Not bad for the cap, eh?
"It was just one of those nights were pucks were getting through and I was getting a lot of rebounds," Hand said, who finished with a game high 14 shots. "A lot of times I would just keep jamming and jamming until I heard a whistle, but I have to give credit where credit is due, and that would be my teammates who set me up with three great passes."
Hand was referring to the assists he received from Breiterman in the first, King in the second, and Hendricks in the third. The first of his three tallies came in the first with the Soviets already trailing 1-0. After receiving a cross crease pass from Breiterman, Hand muffed his first shot into the goalie's pads but was able to corral the rebound and fire the puck over the sprawled out goalie into the top portion of the net.
"I was on the rink with [Hand] at the time," Horton said. "I could tell he was having a good night when he continued going to the net and really started making his presence known. Man, he must have farted at least nine times in that crease. Everyone knew it was him."
The Red Army surrendered a late first period goal and entered the intermission down one goal.
"I think the bench was pretty relaxed," Brian Lynch said. "We wanted to make sure we kept the shifts short and things like that."
The Comrades got off to a nice start in the second when Jamie Simek, a defender whom many believe does not get enough credit around the league, fired a slap shot from the point that redirected off a skate and found the back of the net.
"Baaaaaawwwwwwh!" Simek yelled when he saw the puck cross the goal line. "Niceatron!"
Two minutes later the Soviets struck again to take the lead, this time on the power play. King took a pass from Lynch, and crept in below the hashmarks. With the defensemen, goalie, and humanity all assuming King would let his patented slap shot rip, they were unsuspecting when he fed a slick tape to tape pass to Hand for an easy tap in.
"Everyone just froze," King said after the game. "It was amazing, I don't think they were expecting anything but a shot, and I saw [Hand] standing there so I fired a hard pass to him. Was it just me or was there a goal horn when that goal was scored?"
"Yes... there was a goal horn," Hand said, coyly, flapping his hand behind his back in a futile attempt to disperse the smell of death that had just emanated from his rear end. "There was definitely a goal horn, nobody farted."
The Cryptic Stench would score again in the second to tie the game at three as it headed into the third period, but as the Red Army has shown time and time again, the third period is their period.
King left a nice drop pass to Hendricks who scored his first of the game on the first shift of the third. Breiterman made it 5-3 moments later when he scored shorthanded with Hendricks in the box. Hand completed his hat trick on a nice pass from Hendricks to double up the Stench and Breiterman tacked on an extra point in the final minute for good measure.
"We have the confidence that we're going to win if the game is close in the third," Hendricks said. "It's good, we were missing that early in the season but we have that now."
Breiterman added, "Others are starting to score as well, and it's making us a more lethal team. I don't want to jinx anything, but we may need more Ch-Ch."
That's it for now. The Red Army has moved into the #5 spot with two games remaining. Who thought when the Soviets' record was 2-6 that a winning season was possible? Well, somehow, someway, it still is.
THREE STARS:
#3: Andy Schram
#2: Pat King
#1: Steve Hand
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