BOSSIER CITY, La. – The hopes of the Allen Americans and their fans of hoisting a Ray Miron President’s Cup to cap off their historic run this season were dashed Sunday evening by the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs who closed out the Berry Conference Final series 4 games to 1.
The Mudbugs will now head to the Central Hockey League Final where they will take on the winner of the Rapid City Rush-Colorado Eagles series in the Turner Conference, which is still underway. The Eagles currently lead the Rush 3 games to 2 with Game 6 coming up on Monday from Colorado.
The Bugs once again opened the scoring when Jim Jorgenson lit the lamp at 5:33 to give the Bugs the early go-ahead goal and the lead they would never surrender. As the period came to a close, David Rutherford added another marker on a late period power play to improve the Bugs lead to 2-0 at the 18:37 mark.
With just 8 seconds left in the period, it was a duo of Dave’s from Allen who would whittle the lead down to one on another late period power play, this time for the Americans. Dave Nimmo redirected a shot from Dave Bonk past John DeCaro’s glove to give the Americans a much needed confidence and momentum boost heading to the locker room, trailing 2-1.
The second period saw a pair of goals exchanged between the two clubs and a goaltending swap for the Americans.
David Rutherford came across the blue line with the puck and made a smart move to cross up the Allen defensemen, causing Jonathan Zion to run into his defensive partner Scott Langdon. With both defensemen effectively out of the play,
The Americans immediately pulled Whitley in favor of Scott Campbell to give their team a spark.
Allen fought hard to get things going but their offensive play happened in fits and starts rather than any sustained attack, unable to get going against the Bossier trap which totally shut down the Americans high-powered offense all series long.
The Americans were able to cut the lead down once again to one goal when Jarret Lukin received a feed from Nino Musitelli on the far right post, jamming it past DeCaro at 16:45.
A rejuvenated Americans team took the ice in the third period, finally looking like they had all season long. Allen adjusted their play finally and began controlling the game, moving the puck at will against Bossier. The ‘Bugs fell back into a prevent defense, determined to block as many shots as possible and limit the Americans chances on the net.
Allen had a couple of very good chances early in the frame to notch some markers but were unable to connect and finish the job. Bruce Graham had the best scoring chance with about 12 minutes to go in regulation by DeCaro stoned him with a beautiful save, keeping the Bugs’ lead secure.
Judd Blackwater was given the gate for roughing in an odd call after a scrum that followed a whistle in the Americans end that had both teams involved late in the game. The Americans were able to kill it off but it gave the ‘Bugs some much needed offensive momentum that had been lacking for them through the period.
A minute after the power play ended, Nick Layton received a heads up pass from Rutherford who spied
The Americans would not go that easily into the summer however.
A nice passing sequence from Bonk to Colton Yellow Horn to Tobias Whelan was capped off when the Americans captain potted yet another critical goal for his club. Whelan’s play throughout the playoffs, especially this series has been nothing short of phenomenal both offensively and defensively, proving once again why he wears the C on his sweater.
DeCaro weathered two more shots on net by the Americans in the final minute before Travis Clayton cemented the outcome for the Mudbugs with the empty netter at 19:47.
DeCaro earned his ninth win of the post-season, stopping 23 of 26 shots faced. Scott Campbell takes the loss, stopping 12 of 13 shots; Chris Whitley stopped 7 of 10 shots faced.
Contact the writer at maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com
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