March 5, 2005
As we enter the last month of games, the Cougars stretch run for the playoffs became very important tonight. After making the long trip to Fresno last weekend and losing to the Falcons, the boys in blue were just behind Tri-Valley for the 4th and final playoff spot. It was crunch time, and the Cougars stepped up.
The first period started off with the Cougars controlling the puck well. Kyle Kiaski offered some spark with a couple of nifty opportunities. The Cougars would have several scoring chances, but the Falcon goalie turned away everything shot his way. Then a lucky goal would slip by Andrew Norris and the Falcons would draw first blood. The 1st period would end with Fresno up one to nothing.
In the second period, the Cougars took control. Great defensive play by Jake Griswold, Matt Hopper, Brian Hubbert, Mauricio Schmidt and Brad Cecil shut down the Falcon attack time after time. Then the Cougars got a break when a clearing pass up the boards landed on Ryan Glowniak's stick. He skated in along the far boards and head faked a Falcon right out of his skates. Then, with a tape-to-tape pass, he slid to puck through a Falcon defender right onto the stick of Sean Kurtela who wristed a shot past the Fresno goalie to tie the score at 1 apiece.
Later in the 2nd period, the Cougars were again working their breakout when Brad Cecil picked up the puck on a clearing pass and skated through mid-ice. Brad wrestled his way into the offensive zone and skated across the blue line and found Zack Hitchcock driving deep, and Brad sent the puck saucering to Zack. Zack put some moves on a Falcon defender down on the corner when he spotted Stephen Paulazzo sneaking into the low slot. Zack flipped the puck to the front of the net where Stephen picked it up and sent it into the net for the Cougars second score.
Just about a minute later, again we find Brad Cecil racing around the ice with the puck stuck to his stick. He makes a couple of slick moves into the zone where he again finds Zack Hitchcock who wastes no time and slaps a shot past the Falcon goalie for the 3rd Cougar goal of the period, and that's where the 2nd period would end with the Cougars up 3 to 1.
The third period started with Christian DeJesus getting a nice pass from Jeremy Mamon through the high slot, but his glove side shot was snatched out of the air by the Falcon goalie. Devin Ernst pitched in with some tough back checking to break up Falcon charge. The Falcons were pouring it on as the period was winding down, and with 5 minutes left in the game, a point shot that was screened made it way past the Cougar goalie to bring the visitors to within one. The game ended with the Cougars short-handed on a high-sticking call that was for naught.
And some special props to Andrew Norris who kept the Cougars in the game making 29 of 31 saves. With all the kick saves he was making, at times he resembled a Russian Cossack doing the Kick Dancing. Way to go Andrew!