Despite the Stingers opening up the first period lackluster, the club
managed to nab the first goal of the game at 6:00 in the first period during a Stingers
power play. The goal came from the stick of Blaine Stoughton who blasted the puck past
Racers goalie Michael Dion. But the Racers would respond with five more goals before
Cincinnati could get another on the board.
The first Racers goal came from Blair
MacDonald at 9:30 in the opening period during a Racers power play. His goal was batted in
after a deflected shot by teammate Hugh Harris from the blue line. Harris took another
shot later in the game that was blocked by Stingers goaltender Paul Hogonsan. But the
Racers left winger Michael Parizeau nabbed the puck right in front of the Stingers net and
slipped it in for the score. Indianapolis went on to score their third goal at 16:17 by
right winger Mark Lomanda to put the Racers ahead by a score of 3-1.
In between the first and second period,
Stingers head coach Terry Slater replaced goalie Paul Hoganson with Norm LaPointe after
Hoganson suffered a fracture to his left finger. But the changing of the guard between the
pipes did little to help. Indianapolis's Michael Parizeau scored again in the second
period, marking the Racers fourth straight goal. Blair MacDonald scored the final Racers
goal in the third period at 8:35.
Cincinnati finally scored again after
Gregg Carroll scored his first goal of the season in the final period. Carroll took a
booming slapshot from the right circle and into the net. The Racers goalie Michael Dion
didn't even see the puck until it was already in the Racers net. The goal did little in
the end, because the Racers held on to win the game.
Terry Slater stated that a contributing
factor to the flat play performed by the Stingers was a result of the club's bus ride the
day of the game. "We can't just bus in here the day of the game and expect to be
ready. The guys slept all the way up here and they just weren't mentally ready to
play". Despite the fact that Indy was only a two hour drive from Cincinnati,
Slater stated that he would much rather the team show up the day before game day. On the
flip side, the Racers arrived in Cincinnati for the prior matchup on game day and as a
result, Cincinnati smashed the club with a score of 8 to 2.
The Stingers 5-2 loss to the Racers
would end their four game winning streak. |
