MAVERICKS BATTLE TO 6-5 SHOOTOUT WIN OVER BUCKS
12.22.09
MAVERICKS BATTLE TO 6-5 SHOOTOUT WIN OVER BUCKS
By Partick Armstrong
The Missouri Mavericks defeated the Laredo Bucks 6-5 in a shootout Tuesday night in front of 5,380 fans at Independence Events Center. Mavericks’ defenseman Andrew Davis scored in the final round of the shootout, and five different players had goals in regulation for Missouri who improved to 11-14-1 on the season. Forward Lance Monych had a hat-trick for the Bucks in a back-and-forth battle that had three lead changes. Missouri will travel to Wichita on Saturday, December 26 looking for their seventh straight win against the Thunder.
Monych scored the first of his three goals just 1:11 into the first period when he found room in the Missouri zone and slapped a shot far corner past Mavericks’ goaltender Doug Groenestege. Missouri tied the game on Bret Tyler’s first goal of the season at the 14:52 mark. Tyler took a pass from Simon Watson at the top of the left circle and blasted a shot through traffic that found the back of the net. The teams remained tied 1-1 at the end of the period and the Bucks held a slight edge in shots at 13-12.
It was all Missouri in the opening five minutes of the second period as Bill Vandermeer and Jeff Christian tallied goals for the home team. First, Vandermeer got behind the Laredo defense and lifted a backhand past Bucks’ netminder Kyle Gajewski as Vandermeer was falling to the ice. The goal by Vandermeer was at the 3:56 mark, and Christian’s goal came just 10 seconds later when he one-timed a Bret Tyler pass into the net. The goals just 10 seconds apart marked the fastest two goals in Missouri’s short history.
Laredo retaliated later in the period and put up three straight goals. Monych completed his hat-trick by scoring two goals just 31 seconds apart. His goal at the 8:21 mark was on the power play and he followed it up with an even-strength marker at 8:52 to tie the game 3-3.
The Bucks regained the lead when Darryl Smith scored his 12th goal of the season while Laredo was shorthanded. Adam Rivet assisted on the play that gave Laredo a 4-3 lead heading into the third period. Although the Bucks took the lead, it was the Mavericks that outshot Laredo 18-8 in the period, and the 18 shots for Missouri was just one shot below the team record for shots in a period.
Tommy Lange tied the game at four at the 3:34 mark of the third when he controlled the puck behind the Laredo net and wrapped it around for his first goal in his first game with Missouri. The Mavericks took a 5-4 lead on Karl Sellan’s fourth goal of the season at the 12:21 mark. Sellan took a pass from Mike Burgoyne, found room in the slot and wristed a shot over the shoulder of Gajewski. Missouri held on to the lead until the final three minutes when Bucks’ leading scorer Jeff Bes tallied his ninth goal of the season at the 17:28 mark. The teams remained tied through the end of regulation and the five-minute overtime period to force a shootout.
Mavericks’ goaltender Doug Groenestege stopped all five of Laredo’s shots in the shootout and Andrew Davis scored on the Mavericks’ fifth chance to earn the hard-fought victory. Missouri improved to 5-0 in shootouts this season and Groenestege improved his shootout record to 4-0.
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