PDA

View Full Version : Linebrawl headlines Tri City 4-1 loss to MJ



HAF
01-03-2006, 09:46 PM
This story was published Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

By Annie Fowler, Herald staff writer

For two teams that play each other once a year, there was a lot of bad blood between the Tri-City Americans and the Moose Jaw Warriors on Monday night.

A line brawl at 11:15 of the third period helped account for a majority of the 176 penalty minutes, which overshadowed the Warriors' 4-1 Western Hockey League victory at Toyota Center.

"We were absolutely horrible," said Americans coach Don Nachbaur. "We were way too full of ourselves. We didn't do the things that got us this far. It was unacceptable."

The Americans (15-16-3-1, 34 points), who had a chance to take sole possession of third place in the U.S. Division, failed to get their offense on track and let the Warriors dictate the flow of the game.

"As a team, we didn't compete," Nachbaur said. "We had way too many guys sitting back and watching. Their first two goals were soft. They didn't earn them."

After 8 1/2 minutes of getting to know one another, the Warriors (22-12-2-2), who were playing their second of five games against the U.S. Division, had enough of the niceties and went to work.

Steven Gillen threw the puck off the left wall and toward the net, where Andre Herman got his stick up waist high on Tri-Cities goalie Carey Price and redirected the puck into the net at 11:38.

Blair Jones gave Moose Jaw a 2-0 lead at 18:52, sweeping the puck around the front of the crease then tucked it in beside Price.

"I think we were a little tentative early," said Warriors coach Steve Young.

The Warriors took a 3-0 lead at 13:12 of the second as Kenndal McArdle and Troy Brouwer came down the ice 2-on-1 against Americans defenseman Landon Jones.

With Brouwer contained by Jones, McArdle shot the puck from the left side of the crease, with the puck glancing off Price's stick and into the net.

The Americans' best scoring chance came at 4:30 of the second as Aaron Boogaard picked up a loose puck and drove in all alone on Perricone. But Boogaard got his stick too far under the puck and blasted it over the net and off the glass.

McArdle gave Moose Jaw a 3-0 lead at 13:12 of the second as his shot from just inside the left circle glanced off Price's stick and into the net.

The Warriors took a comfortable 4-0 lead at 8:19 of the fourth as Bjorn Svensson lifted the puck over a sprawled Price at the left post.

Price had just made two outstanding saves and wasn't able to recover in time to stop Svensson.

Three minutes after Svensson's goal, a brawl broke out in the corner to the right of Moose Jaw goalie Joey Perricone, resulting in 98 penalty minutes between the two teams.

"It was a game we were ready to play," Young said. "We knew it would be physical. Our division is physical. We use speed and play a physical game."

The Americans denied Perricone a shutout at 17:50 of the third as rookie Dan Watt was on the tail end of a tic-tac-toe play down the ice with Boogaard and Kyle Peters for his first WHL goal.

Perricone finished with 24 saves as the Warriors moved within four points of East Division-leading Saskatoon.

Price finished with 21 saves in 50 minutes of work before turning the net over to rookie Chet Pickard, who had six saves.

* Annie Fowler can be reached at 582-1574 or via e-mail at afowler@tri-cityherald.com.