ALEXANDRIA BAY, NY – Faced with elimination in the first round of the FHL Commissioner’s Cup playoffs, the Thousand Islands Privateers did what wounded animals in the wild do when faced with extinction: fight back.
Paced by four consecutive second period goals by Tibor Varga, the Privateers defeated the Akwesasne Warriors 9-4 in game two of their best-of-three series Saturday night at the Bonnie Castle Recreation Center. The win forces a win-or-go-home game three Sunday afternoon in Alexandria Bay.
The defending champion Warriors will not have the services of forward Pierre Dagenais for the deciding game. Dagenais, who led the league in scoring during the regular season, was called for a major penalty and a game misconduct due to a hit on a Privateers player early in the second period.
After being stunned by Dan Tessier’s overtime goal in Akwesasne Friday night, Thousand Islands was facing a second straight year of being knocked out of the post-season by their arch rivals. The Privateers needed to start off fast and they did just that. Brad Smulders opened the scoring at the 6:14 mark to put Thousand Islands up by one. Two minutes later, Akwesasne had an answer with Tessier took a feed from Sylvain Deschatelets and beat Privateers goalie Matt Anthony to tie the score.
The rest of the opening period belonged to the home team. Less than a minute after Tessier’s goal, Adam McAllister lit the lamp to put the Privateers ahead to stay. Late in the period, Miguel Delisle took advantage of a Warriors penalty to score a power play goal against his former team. When Smulders popped home his second of the period at the 19:38 mark, the Privateers had a very healthy 4-1 lead after one despite being out-shot 16-7.
The second period – or actually the first 13 minutes of the period – completely belonged to Varga and Thousand Island. Varga started his onslaught 1:53 into the stanza, taking a feed from Britt Ouellette and beating Warriors netminder Alexandre Vincent. His second score came a minute and a half later at the 3:35 mark. Varga completed the natural hat trick during the power play stemming from Dagenais’ major penalty at 9:24. Just for good measure, he notched his fourth consecutive tally at 12:51 off of a pass from defenseman Michael Byrd.
Varga also unwittingly had a hand in the next score but it belonged to Akwesasne. He took a hooking penalty at 13:34 which led to a power play goal by the Warriors’ Ahmed Mahfouz at 15:06 of the period, cutting the Privateers lead to 8-2.
The Warriors have never been a team to throw in the towel, even when trailing big. Martin Beaulne trimmed the Thousand Islands lead to five when he scored on Privateers’ netminder Peter Dundovich, who had replaced Anthony after the second intermission. The goal at 6:23 of the period gave the visitors some hope of a stirring comeback. Beaulne scored again at the 14:47 mark to bring the Warriors within 8-4 but it was as close as they would get. Brendan Baumgartner sealed the victory with a goal in the final minute to close the scoring and send the teams to Sunday’s final game.
Game Notes: Thousand Island’s Alex Redmond had himself a busy night, getting into two scuffles. He fought Akwesasne’s Jean Rene’ Forget in the second period then got tangled up with Beaulne late in the third…The Privateers’ Smulders finished the game with five points on two goals and three assists. Teammate Jeremy Akeson joined Varga in the four-point club with four assists in the contest…There were a total of three power plays in the game between the teams. Akwesasne was a perfect 1-for-1 with the man advantage while Thousand Islands was 2-for-2…Attendance at the Bonnie Castle Rec Center was listed at 1,070.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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