Coffman Rocks 6  St. Francis DeSales Stallions 3

Game Summary - Dublin Coffman vs. St. Francis DeSales, Friday, January 25, 2008 - Dublin Chiller

 

                                                                                                                                                            photo by Carol Anderson

1st Period
Rocks on a 4 game skid needed to turn things around as soon as possible if they wanted to compete in the last 4 weekends of the season. The CHC League game was huge and the Rocks knew after the 1st meeting with the much improved DeSales Stallions they had better show up, OT was not a risk they would be willing to take again. Unfortunately for the Rocks there were only 4 players that showed up to play this game, the 4 knew it would be tough to win that way but the effort the 4 would make would pay dividends. For the first 5 minutes of the game most of the Rocks are standing around watching Alex Rogers take shot after shot as the Stallions memory of the previous game was not lost. The Stallions continue to pressure the lifeless Rocks and fortunately to shots thru the midway point hit the goal post behind Rogers or the Rocks could have been in big trouble. With 4 minutes remaining Rogers, Wall and Zacharias do their turn around and start pressuring the Stallions goaltender, Salerno, would see the majority of his work to end the period. After making 3 point blank stops the first on a one time slap shot from Zacharias, the rebound right to Rogers who gets two whacks at the puck, Salerno buckles and takes a tripping penalty to give the Rocks a man advantage. The new look power play from last weekend is sent out again and they would produce again, Rogers controls the puck on the right side circle, Zacharias is in front pulling two Stallions d-men with him, Salerno can only see Zacharias' number and Rogers lays a perfect pass into the top of the circle, where Jimmy Wall can hardly wait to shoot and the thunderous blast beats Salerno clean, who had no chance, 1-0 Rocks. Just 1 minute later Evan Bowdy makes a great play in his own zone and scoots up ice, twisting and turning thru the neutral zone Bowdy attracts a crowd of Stallions at their blue line and he slides a pass over to Ridgway, Ridgway sends a low shot from well out, Salerno never seemed to move on the shot, and the Rocks, who been outplayed for most of the first found themselves heading into the break 2-0. The Rocks out shot the Stallions in the first period 8-7.

2nd Period
The guess was the Rocks got an earful during the break as they seemed to come out faster and much more focused. The first several minutes the Rocks are looking like they are ready too play dominating the Stallions in their end. But an icing call puts a face-off to the right of Alex Rogers, the Stallions win the draw, poor coverage allows the Stallions, Ben Janszen, to walk in point blank and rifle a shot top shelf, Rogers who had already made some big saves stops the puck with his shoulder but the rebound drops in front and Colton Mieskoski bangs the loose puck past Rogers, 2-1 Rocks. Just 2 minutes later Zacharias sends a cross ice pass to Wall, Wall winds up to shoot and the Stallions come, leaving Anthony Rogers wide open, Wall slips him the puck and Rogers unleashes a slap shot that beats Salerno far side high and the Rocks restore the advantage, 3-1 Rocks. Once again the players that are on the ice for the Rocks are sleeping and give up a breakaway halfway thru the period, from the Stallions end of the ice, big forward Colton Caldwell skates in alone and dekes Rogers and the puck just crosses the line to get the Stallions back into the game 3-2 Rocks. Accept for the same 4 players all night the Rocks seem uninterested to compete, for the most part they have been out hit, out worked but not out shot, the Rocks get the power play again and once again they would produce. Zacharias, takes a beating in front of Salerno, Rogers controls the puck again and Wall is waiting at the top, Wall gets the puck only this time he races to the outside walks in untouched on Salerno and scores one of the prettiest goals of the season as he roofs the puck short side as he fly's past the back of the net, 4-2 Rocks.  Rocks out shot the Stallions 17-5.

3rd Period
The 3rd is uneventful for the first 10 minutes of play, as time winds down on the Stallions, the Rocks take a sloppy penalty. Coach Pooley, takes no Risks and sends out Wall and Zacharias on the back end and Rogers and Ridgway up front, as many teams have learned the hard way if you aren't careful when you have the man advantage the Rocks will make you pay and once again Rogers steals a puck in the Stallions end, while killing the penalty, Rogers fakes a shot drawing the only Stallion left in his end and back hands a pass to Ridgway who is all alone with only Salerno to beat, Ridgway sends a low shot blocker side that Salerno had no Chance on and the Rocks lead 5-2. Rocks take another penalty and with 1 minute left the Stallions pull their goaltender, Wall intercepts a pass under pressure in his own end and sends the puck way up in the air over everyone and dead center of the net 6-2 Rocks. With time expiring and still on the advantage the Stallions finally break through when  Dominique Locilento makes a beautiful pass from behind the Rocks net and right onto the tape of Ben Janszen' stick, he wastes no time and beats Rogers clean to end the game at 6-3, Rocks. Rocks out shoot the Stallions 7-4 in the 3rd and 32-16 overall.

Rocks Highlights:
Simply put this kind of effort will not take the Rocks much farther in the playoffs, but too play this way and break the losing streak is still 2 valuable league points. The Rocks will need a much bigger effort against a hard charging Golden Bears club as CHC League continues, Rocks host Upper Arlington Golden Bears Saturday at 6:00 pm, Dublin Chiller.

 

                                                                                                                      by Randy Zacharias