DANVILLE, ILL – With their season and a possible Commissioner’s Cup title hanging in the balance, the Danville Dashers needed a win in game four of the FHL’s championship series on Thursday, March 26th. In front of an announced crowd of 1,215, the Dashers came up with a gutsy performance and kept their hopes alive.
Led by an outstanding performance by goalie Matt Anthony, the Dashers were able to beat the Watertown Wolves 2-1 at the David S. Palmer Arena. The victory evened up the best-of-five series at two wins each and sent the teams back to Watertown for a deciding final contest.
Anthony and Watertown netminder Joss St. Pierre were the featured players in the first period as neither offense found the back of the net. Anthony turned away 19 Wolves shots while St. Pierre, a former Dasher, stopped all 15 Danville shots that he faced.
The host Dashers gave their fans something to cheer about in the middle frame by netting the period’s only goal. It came off the stick of Gehrett Sargis at the 5:03 mark. The lone assist on Sargis’ tally went to John Scully.
Neither team would find the net until the 14:59 mark of the third period when Danville’s AJ Tesoriero took a feed from Brian Soskin and beat St. Pierre to give the home squad a two goal lead.
Watertown was not about to go down without a fight. With just less than three minutes left in regulation, the Wolves were on a power play and pulled St. Pierre for an extra attacker. The strategy worked when Dane Erickson and Mike Donnellan combined to set up Phil Bronner who put the puck behind Anthony to make it a 2-1 game.
It would prove to be as close as the Wolves would get as Anthony, who finished the game with 47 saves, and the Dashers’ defense held off Watertown’s attempts to send the game to overtime.
The Wolves would have the final say in the series as they won the deciding game on Saturday, March 28th by a final of 6-2. Bronner netted two goals in the game while Chad Bennett, Cody Dion, Aaron Atwell and Lucas LaBelle each scored once. Andrew Harrison and Soskin each scored power play goals for the Dashers. Both teams should be congratulated for their efforts in giving the fans of the FHL another exciting finals series.
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