The Phoenix Roadrunners kicked off the game with a quick goal 50 seconds
into the game. The shot came from Del Hall after retrieving the puck that bounced off of
the boards from another shot he took moments prior. Five minutes later the Stingers
answered with a goal by Claude Larose. The goal came when Dave Inkpen passed to Blaine
Stoughton and then passed again to Claude Larose. Larose then knocked a short shot past
the Roadrunners goalie Clay Hebenton for the score. Greg Carroll was called for cross
checking at 9:20 which gave the Roadrunners a grand scoring opportunity. However, the
Stingers managed to kill of the penalty minutes with some fine defensive work.
The second period saw little Stingers
offense and three Roadrunners goals by the line of Del Hall, Robbie Ftorek and Frank
Hughes. Del Hall scored the first of the three goals on a backhanded shot from the
right side. Three minutes later Frank Hughes scored his first goal in a Roadrunners
uniform after deflecting a shot taken by Ftorek. And the third goal of the period coming
from the stick of Del Hall to complete his hat trick. It would be his third career hat
trick. against the Stingers. With less then a minute left in the opening period Hall
received a pass from teammate Robbie Ftorek and Hall then easily slipped it past Stingers
goaltender Norm LaPointe.
Terry Slater decided to try and shake
up his team for the fine period of the game. So he shuffled his forward lines to try and
get some offense going. The tactic worked. Cincinnati came out on fire for the third
period, scoring two goals in less then one minute. The first goal came from defenseman
John Hughes after hitting a hard, low shot from the blue line. Roadrunners goalie Hebenton
didn't see the puck whiz by him. Blaine Stoughton followed after he received the puck from
Peter Marsh. Stoughton then deflected the puck into the net for the score. But the
Roadrunners would score again at 6:16 when Roadrunners Juani Tamminen took of on a
breakaway and took a shot on the Stingers net. His shot was blocked and Roadrunner Seppo
Repo knocked it in on the rebound. Despite the Stingers being down by two goals, the club
did not give up. Richie Leduc took a pass from Peter Marsh and backhanded a short shot
into the net for the score. Then the Billy Steele deflected a hard shot by rookie
defenseman Barry Merlose to tie the game up and eventually send it into overtime.
But despite such a great comeback by
the Stingers, the Roadrunners would skate away victorious. The Roadrunners Frank Hughes
knocked in the game winning goal with a backhanded shot at 1:05 in overtime. The loss
ended the Stingers four game winning streak. It would be the Stingers sixth overtime game
that has equated to four losses and two ties. |
