The Stingers headed into their second playoff game with many injuries to
key players. Dennis Sobchuk was bothered by by painful pulled stomach muscles. Billy
Steele was also in bad shape while Jacques Caron had a bruised rib. But before the game,
head coach Terry Slater surprised many by giving injured Jacques Caron the thumbs-up to be
the goalie. Caron claimed that he felt good during the pregame warm up but his play was
anything but. Caron even stated after the game that "I was wrong".
|
© Courtesy of Cincinnati
Public Library. |
Racers goalie Michel Dion secures the puck
while the Stingers Rich Leduc and Dennis Sobchuk
readjust their footing. |
The Racers scored five unanswered
goals spanning two period. The first three came in the opening period at 5:15 by center
Reg Thomas. Mark Lomenda followed at 5:58 and Rennie Leclerc scored at 13:43.
Terry Slater rightfully pulled Caron
before the start of the second period and replaced him with Norm LaPointe. But the Racers
kept hammering away at LaPointe gave up two more goals. The goals coming from Nick
Harbaruk and Michael Parizeau. The Stingers were nowhere to be found when the two goals
were scored. Cincinnati finally bagged a much needed goal with on twelve seconds remaining
in the middle period. The goal came from Dennis Abgrall when he deflected in a shot from
Dale Smedsmo.
In the third period the Racers kept up
the scoring after they netted two more goals. One by Brian McDonald and the other by Reg
Thomas. Cincinnati scored again at 9:45 when Ron Plumb surprised the Racers goalkeeper
Michel Dion. But it was not nearly enough and to late for the Stingers to mount any kind
of comeback. It would be the second loss, both coming at home and the Stingers now had to
head to Indianapolis down by two games. On top of all of the Stingers injuries, Cincinnati
had not faired to well during the regular season at Market Square Arena.
Team captain Rick Dudley mentioned that
he felt the lack of playoff experience by his young club. Dudley had experience in the
playoffs in the minor leagues with the Cincinnati Swords and the major leagues with the
Buffalo Sabres. "Its been a long season for the young players and maybe they're
tired. Maybe they just don't want to go on as far as you have to go to win". |
