SAN ANTONIO , Texas – The Barons earn their third strait win in the third consecutive over-time contest. Oklahoma City remains undefeated in four road games for the post-season. With an injury to assistant captain and veteran centerman Josh Green, fellow vet Triston Grant skated in his second post-season game. All four lines were shuffled, which resulted in Chris VandeVelde centering the Teemu Hartikainen -Magnus Paajarvi line. Defenseman Taylor Chorney wore the “A” in Green’s absence. The game started slow, with the Barons serving the first penalty of the game. Penalty minute holder Barons defenseman Dylan Yeo was whistled for hooking at 3:24 into the game. Seven seconds after the penalty expired, the Barons were short-handed again as VandeVelde was sent to the box for high-sticking. The penalty kill by Oklahoma City was able to prevent the best power-play tem in the league, from scoring on both these penalties. The Barons had the man advantage twice in the first period, yet were not able to convert. At 13:30 in the second period, Bracken Kearns pulled down Alex Plante and the Barons went on the power-play. As twice before, Oklahoma City did not capitalize on the man advantage. This was the only penalty in the second period. After two periods of play, the game was a scoreless tie.
Hunter Tremblay
Mid-way through the third period, Hunter Tremblay scored on a multiple rebound attempt, when he got the puck past 6’6” Rampage netminder Jacob Markstrom. The play was set-up by Ryan Keller who stripped the puck in the neutral zone and fed a pass to Tremblay. His first shot was blocked, the rebound went to Anton Lander, his shot was blocked, and then the rebound was finally knocked in by Tremblay. “He is a smart and reliable guy, he brings offense and defense to his game,” said VandeVelde. “He is a great penalty killer, it is huge key to us winning; is to have him in the line-up again.” During the regular season, Tremblay lead rookies for short-handed goals. Of his four goals in seven play-off games, one is short-handed. Four minutes later, the Rampage tied the game when Bill Thomas batted the puck out of the air to beat Barons Netminder Yann Danis. This was a “bouncing” puck that was not cleared by the lone Barons defenseman on the ice. The third period ended in a 1 to 1 tie. This game was destined for sudden death overtime, the third strait OT of the series.
Chris VandeVelde
The ice was barely dry when Paajarvi set up his linemates by keeping the puck in play. VandeVelde scored at 1:05 on a pass from Hartikainen. This was a steep angle backhanded shot from the goal line. As with Game 3, the Barons won in over-time by a score of 2 to 1, with the game-winner coming from VandeVelde. “It is nice to get on the scoreboard, score some goals and help your team out,” said VandeVelde. “As a line we have played really well. If we are not on the score sheet, it doesn’t mean we are not playing well.”
Yann Danis
In this contest, neither team scored a power-play goal.
San Antonio was 0 for 2 on the night, with a 22 for 38 record at 34.2 %, the best in the AHL.
Oklahoma City was 0 for 4, with a 4 for 33 record, at 12.1%, which places them fifth in the league of teams still playing in the conference semifinals. Danis, the AHL goaltender of the year and Barons only post-season goalie, improved to 6-2-0. Markstrom’s record is now 4-3-0. “We have some new faces killing penalties and this is a really good power-play; we’ve got to give them [
San Antonio] credit as well,” said VandeVelde. “We’ve got to keep going and keep playing smart hockey on the PK, and we did that tonight.” Game 5 will be Friday night in
San Antonio. The Barons have a chance to close out the best-of-seven series. If necessary, Games 6 and 7 will be in
Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening. The winner of this series will face the Toronto Marlies, who defeated the Abbotsford Heat with four straight wins.
Contact the author at gail.hamill@prohockeynews.com Related
