The Danville Dashers fell three goals to two in game one of the two-game weekend homestand against the Watertown Wolves on Friday night at the David S. Palmer Arena in Danville.
The game was tightly-contested from the beginning, that had the makings of a classic, hard-nosed hockey game from the first puck drop. Both teams came out hard on the offensive end in the first period, pressing hard on both ends of the ice in competitive play that resulted in a large amount of breakaway opportunities for both sides.
Watertown fought off two minor penalties to Deric Boudreau and Joseph Deveny in the first six minutes of the game, with Danville forcing Jeremy Pominville into five saves spread out between the two power plays. By the time the Watertown powerplay had killed them off, Watertown was hot to go on the attack. It was only a few minutes later in the tenth minute when Patrik Zilak and Preston Kugler both went to the box for roughing as the gloves came off in a scrum at center ice.
The fight was quickly broken up, and it was in the 16th minute that Tyler Gjurich scored the opening goal. Deric Boudreau passed in to a streaking Gjurich, and one of the FHL’s best goal scorers from last season fired home past Dasher goalie Jessie Gordichuk to put Watertown up one to zero.
The first period ended without much event, until Dashers player-coach AJ Tesoriero received a pass from Jesse Neher in the slot, and fired from an impossibly tight angle to beat Watertown goalie Jeremy Pominville. It was fifteen minutes into the second period when former Dasher Marvin Powell went to the box for hooking, and the Dashers scored to take the lead two goals to one. The goal would go to Justin Brausen goal assists from Alex Pommerville and Brad Denney on the power play.
The second period proved to be the heaviest scoring period in the low-scoring game, taking that title when Johan Hoglund went to the box for interference, and Watertown’s Kyle Powell and Lane King connected on passes to Tyler Gjurich to tie the game at two goals a piece with just two and a half minutes left in the second period.
Both goalies were at the top of their game on the night to entertain the crowd of 1,184, and Jesse Gordichuk and Jeremy Pominville saved a combined 80 shots on the night, allowing just five total goals. The game, as a result of their stellar play, was decided in the third period, when Deric Boudreau broke away on even strength from a Lane King outlet pass to score what would be the winning goal, with just under eight minutes left in the game.
Both teams took timeouts in the closing minutes, but only Watertown would come away with the win. Justin Brausen (1G) took the third star on the night for the Dashers, with the second star going to Deric Boudreau (1G, 1A, GWG) and the first to Tyler Gjurich (2G).
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