RiverKings avoid elimination

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – After three straight losses to the Colorado Eagles the Mississippi RiverKings discovered the recipe for wining in fame four of this Northern Conference Finals series.

Even though some of the methods were unorthodox, the recipe for success included the following. Allow four goals on 11 shots and get behind 4 to 0. Then pull your starting goalie and play the back-up. Play relaxed hockey with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Chip away at Colorado’s lead including late period goals in each period. Tie the game and wait for overtime to knock in the game-winner. For added drama, wait to score the game winner until the second overtime period.
For awhile it appeared the Eagles were on their way to the CHL’s championship round. Greg Pankewicz lit the lamp at 5:25 of the first period on an unassisted breakaway that slid effortlessly through Kevin Beech’s pads for the 1 to 0 lead. Eleven seconds later Riley Nelson and Kevin Ulanski, with help from Steve Haddon, broke in two-on-one with Nelson lifting the puck upstairs into the right corner of Beech’s net for goal number two.
 
Konrad Reeder finished off a three-on-one taking a pass from Pankewicz and going forehand and then back to backhand to score goal number three on Beech at the 15:37 mark and barely a minute later at 16:32 Brett Hammond pulled up after entering the offensive and zone and took a big slap shot that went right through the Mississippi goalie’s pads.
 
Tyler Sims replaced Beech after goal number four for the Eagles and the tide began to turn the ‘Kings way with only a 1:16 left in the opening period when Matt Summers scored with assists from Jeff Nelson and Derek Landmesser.
 
Inspired by the late goal, Mississippi came out hard in the second period and cut the Eagles lead in half with a goal that was scored by Stephen Margeson on the power play. Helpers on the goal went to Summers and Landmesser.
 
Ed McGrane scored the Eagles final goal of the game at 11:04 of second frame with a breakaway goal to keep his scoring streak alive for the 28th game in a row.
 
With the score five to two half way through regulation it was time for the Kings to dig deep, pull out all the stops and do what was necessary to extend the series at least one more game.
 
Martin Gascon scored with less than a minute left in the middle period to bring the Riverkings within two goals and the long dormant power play of the Mississippi team broke through for both goals in the third period with Jeff Alcombrack scoring the first at 4:18 and Andrew Lackner scored the tying goal at 15:09.
 
With a depleted bench, sporting two newly signed amateur players and no big power forward, the skill of the Eagles was somewhat lessened and the RiverKings were revitalized by their comeback yet, Andrew Penner continued to keep the Colorado team in the game through the entire 20 minutes of the first overtime period.
 
After 83 minutes and 46 seconds, on the game’s 109th shot, Summers scored  to keep the Colorado Eagles from sweeping their second playoff series in a row and gave the game its final score of six to five.
 
Game five will be played less than 20 hours after the end of game four at 7:05 on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at the Desoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi.
 
Contact the author and photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com
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