GREEN BAY, Wisconsin – On Saturday night the Indiana Ice entered game two with a one game lead in the east Division Finals of the USHL playoffs. The Green Bay Gamblers faced a must win situation after dropping the first game at home by a score of 5-1; losing their home ice advantage. Throughout the regular season Green Bay had dominated the Ice regardless of the venue at hand.
Through the entire game both teams played sound disciplined ice hockey. Both franchises took three penalties and stepped up their killing units to not allow a single goal. While the first period saw no scoring for either team, C.J. Lee managed two minors for the Gamblers and Mikael Owilli received an interference call for the Ice. While Lee’s first penalty looked like a horrific beginning for Green Bay drawing the penalty at 0:25 to start the game, it never seemed to burden the minds of the Gamblers as the team’s performance was up to par.
After both teams were kept from the net in the first period, Indiana would get the ball rolling in the second when Loren Barron scored at 5:50; he was assisted by John Parker. The tight defensive play would continue through a good deal of the second period until 14:19 when Michael Forney scored for the Gamblers. The game tying goal was assisted by Ryan Furme and Dalton Speelman. It would be three short minutes later that Green Bay would put themselves up by a score of 2-1 going into the second intermission. Chris Saracino would score for the Gamblers assisted by David Makowski.
Indiana opened the third period up a game in the series, but down a goal in game two. Stanislav Galiev would get the game tying goal at 4:54 as he would open up a very exciting offensive period. Both teams would score twice in the third period as they jockeyed for position over one another. Riding the emotional high from Galiev’s goal, John Parker would pick up his second point of the evening at 6:29 when he scored placing the Ice up 3-2 early in the third period. It looked for a good deal of the final period as if Indiana may pull out two road wins to open the East Finals as the seconds ticked away on Green Bay, down a goal. However at 13:30, Dave Makowski would pick up his second of three points when he assisted Kevin Albers on his game tying goal. The Green Bay goal would tie the game at three all with a mere 6:30 left to play.
While Buzz Schneider will always be quoted as saying six and a half minutes is a long time against anyone in a tight game; it was much more important for Green Bay to win this game. With 0:32 left on the clock Chris Saracino would pick up the game winning goal and his second of the night. The 4-3 Green Bay lead would be materialized into a win thanks to the steel nerves of Steve Summerhays in the Green Bay net. Summerhays stopped 34 pucks for the win as Indiana placed 37 on him throughout the night. With the win, the Gamblers tied the East Division Finals at one game apiece with the series heading to Indianapolis for game three.
You may contact the author at: john.strathman@prohockeynews.com
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