Gary Moskalyk Recaps the second set of games of the Bill Salonen Cup Finals!
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AT KAM RIVER FIGHTING WALLEYE |
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| Jett Mintenko scored two goals including the overtime game winner as the Fighting Walleye overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat Dryden 3-2. Ashton Sadauskas made 34 saves for his 10th playoff win. The Walleye lead the series 2-1 heading into Thursday’s game.
Three goals were scored in the second after a scoreless first period. Dryden scored twice 37 seconds apart on a four-minute powerplay to take the 2-0 lead. Rylan Oatman notched his 5th on a wrist shot from the left dot at 5:50 of the second. Payton Hu got his second of the playoffs, converting Carson Devine’s centering feed at 6:27, 37 seconds into the second infraction. Mintenko replied for Kam River, scoring the first of his two goals at 14:41 to cut the lead in half. Mintenko had time to load up a wrister over Noah Davis’ shoulder from the left dot on a Walleye powerplay. Edwin Liang and Daxton Lang assisted. Dryden won a faceoff deep in the Kam River end with 1.5 seconds left and buried the puck, but the goal was promptly disallowed for coming after the buzzer. Callum Halls was stopped on a grade A chance midway through the third, but made no mistake at 13:51, depositing a Sam Sargent rebound for his third playoff goal to tie the game at 2-2. Persistent for checking by the Walleye was key. Kam River took a penalty late in the frame but was able to kill it off and send the game into overtime. Dryden took a two-minute roughing penalty 55 seconds into overtime. The Walleye capitalized. Mintenko’s one-timer at 2:07 ended the contest. Lang got the primary assist, his 12th of the post season, and Liang got his eighth. Final shots favoured the Walleye 44-36. Lang and Liang had two assists for Kam River. Both powerplays were 2-8. Referees Jason Begin and Kevin Bragnalo called 16 minor penalties–eight per team. |
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| Ashton Sadauskas stopped all 32 shots he faced for his 11th playoff win and Brodie McLeod scored the game winner back in the first period as Kam River took a 2-0 decision against visiting Dryden. Carter Poddubny added an empty netter with 10 seconds left as the Walleye opened up a 3-1 series lead heading in Saturday’s game five match in Dryden. Dryden’s Max Roby will be a significant addition to Dogs’ line-up for Saturday after serving his one-game suspension.
Noah Davis stopped 25 of 26 for the Ice Dogs to shoulder the loss. Davis made a nice glove save on Jett Mintenko at 6:17 of the first. McLeod scored for Kam River from the slot after accepting a centering feed from Poddubny shortly thereafter. McLeod’s first of the playoffs came at 7:58. McLaren Paulsen was helped off the ice with three minutes to go in the first when he went down awkwardly in the Walleye zone. He was good to go after the first intermission. The Walleye held a 16-9 first period shot advantage that slowly evaporated as the game wore on. The Ice Dogs outshot Kam River 12-6 in the second and 11-5 in the third but couldn’t solve Sadauskas. Dryden rang one off the post at 5:14 of the third. With Davis off for an extra attacker Sadauskas made a pad save on a deflected shot from Paulsen with a minute left to preserve the slim 1-0 Kam River lead. The Ice Dogs were barely offside with 32 seconds left in the third after applying significant pressure in the Kam River zone. The Walleye cleared their zone with seconds remaining. Zach Baumann’s pass sent Poddubny speeding down the ice. Poddubny’s shot from the blue line crossed the goal line sealing the win. Caleb Labelle had the secondary helper. Dryden had three minor penalties to Kam River’s four. Neither team scored on the power play. Lance Dysievick and Tim Vaillant were the referees while Kyle Brend and Josh Gribben handled the lines. Poddubny had a goal and assist and Baumann had two assists for Kam River. Attendance at Norwest Arena matched Wednesday’s full-house total of 890. |
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