Barons bounce back against the Marlies

OKLAHOMA CITY , Okla. – In a wild game with plenty of fisticuffs, the Barons defeated the visiting Marlies by a score of 5 to 1. After dropping the home opener, the Barons earned a much needed win in the Western Conference Finals.
 

A fired-up Oklahoma City team kept a fast pace throughout this game.   It didn’t take long for a penalty to be whistled.   At 1:47 on a line change, a feisty Ryan Keller shoved Marlie Nazem Kadri into the open door of the Barons bench area; pushing ensued and both were whistled for roughing.   Evidently extradition from the Barons bench does occur, as Keller had to be retrieved from the bench to serve his minor.  
 
The Barons were above to capitalize on the power-play and score the first goal of the game. Bryan Rodney kept the puck in the offensive zone.   Philippe Cornet passed the puck from the low right wing circle across the slot to Mark Arcobello.   He got his own rebound to score on Marlies netminder Ben Scrivens.  
 
Korbinian Holzer and Dylan Yeo began pushing and shoving at 14:07 others joined in and this resulted in five players being assessed rouging minors.   The first unsportsmanlike conduct of the night was handed out at 17:40 of the opening period.   Triston Grant was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for an altercation with Jesse Blacker.  
 
With nine seconds remaining in the period Teemu Hartikainen received a centering pass from Magnus Paajarvi to put the home team up by two goals.   His shot from the high slot got past Scrivens, who had been stellar the previous night.   This score would hold up to be the game-winning goal.   “It was a situation where he got a great effort on that goal he scored,” said Coach Todd Nelson.   “Hartikainen scored a key goal for us there, the guys had confidence coming into the dressing room.”
 
Strangely enough, there were no offsetting minors whistled in the second period.   The only goal of the middle frame was a mirror reflection of the previous set-up from Cornet.   This time, the cross zone pass was from the rim of the left wing circle to the right wing circle and found Cornet. “I think it is more about momentum,” said Cornet.   “We have got to keep playing like that.”
 
The Marlies got on the board mid-way through the final period.    Will Acton shadowed a Barons defenseman toward the crease and scored on Barons goaltender Yann Danis. This was Acton’s first post season score, and brought the visitors within two goals.
 
With all the Barons not just defenseman clearing rebounds from Danis, Chris VandeVelde, the “over-time specialist” swept the puck from the crease, and headed to the neutral zone.   Taylor Chorney and Paajarvi got the puck to VandeVelde, who scored the insurance goal on a writ shot.   The next play of the game included the Marlies pulling their goaltender for an extra skater.
 
This strategy did not work well, as the Barons Keller scored an empty net goal with less than three minutes remaining in the game.   25 seconds later, what began as a slash by Joe Colborne was retaliated by a hit from Grant in the corner.   This erupted into three separate fights involving nine players and 92 penalty minutes.  
 
Acton and Tanner House were fighting behind the Oklahoma City goal, which was unnoticed for a while by the officials, as the majority of the players were tangled in the corner.   The penalty variety of a 10-minute misconduct paired with a two minute minor for rouging was handed out to four players: Barons Alex Plante and Cameron Abney; as well as the Marlies Jay Rosehill and Mark Fraser.   The “heavyweight” bout was between Holzer and Grant, which also included other players jumping in.
After all the players assessed more penalty time that remained in the game, left the ice, play briefly resumed.   Antti Tyrvainen irritated Simon Gysbers and both were tossed for unsportsmanlike conduct at 19:51.   As the end of the game buzzer sounded, the last altercation of the evening occurred between rookie defenseman Dan Ringwald and Ryan Hamilton.  
 
With the Barons win, Danis improved to 8-3-0, while Scrivens was handed his second loss of the post season.   “We stuck to our game plan and that has been the reason for our success,” said Danis.   “We did a lot better defensively, they didn’t get as many chances as last night.”
 
The Barons are 15.6 percent on the power play. Five different players scored for the Barons on Friday night, and five different Marlies scored on Thursday night.   “We talked about a bounce back,” said Paajarvi.   “We had a meeting right after the game last night.   They pushed us away in our own rink; that is not acceptable.”  
 
The Barons have a good road record, as they have not a lost on the road in the post-season.   “We know we play better on the road,” said Cornet.   “We keep it more simple on the road; not try to impress the fans and try to do too much.”
 
The series heads to Toronto for games 3, 4, and 5.   Game three will be Monday afternoon at 3:00 Central Time. Games 4 and 5 will be telecast on Cox channel 3 (or HD 703) in the Oklahoma City area, at 6:00 on Wednesday and Friday evenings.  
 
Contact the author at gail.hamill@prohockeynews.com