Saturday, January 26, 2008

Trenton 5, Elmira 2

The Devils used four assists from all-star Ryan Gunderson and a hat-trick from veteran Jim Henkel to upend the Elmira Jackals last night 5-2 in front of 2,972 at the Sovereign Bank Arena.

Despite the offensive explosion from Trenton, it was Elmira who jumped out in front in this one, scoring just 2:33 into the game when Luke Fulghum found the net.  Elmira then continued to dominate the play for the next ten minutes until for some strange reason they decided to begin brawling with the Devils.  Only seven seconds after Jackal Jim McKenzie had been sent to the box for slashing, Jim Henkel scored on the powerplay when he redirected a Ryan Gunderson pass through the legs of Elmira netminder Dan LaCosta to tie the score at 1-1.  Then the gloves came off.
Immediately following the goal, Trevor Kell and Chris Busby went at it, and after both men were sent off for fighting, and Elmira's Luke Fritzshaw picked up an additional two minutes for roughing, the Devils were on the powerplay again.

This time it would only take them 23 seconds to score as Tony Zancanaro netted his seventh goal of the season when he send another Gunderson pass into the top right corner of the net.
The score went to 2-1, and the Devils went to 2-2 on the powerplay.

The fighting picked up again after that goal as at 18:19 Jeff State and Thomas Harrison mixed it up, with State getting the better of Harrison, and again at 18:44 when Luke Fritzshaw again threw down, this time with Jason Paige.  A bigger meelee broke out at 19:20 when all ten skaters mixed it up to varying degrees of intensity.  Colin Pepperall and Trevor Hendrikx got five for fighting, Zach Tarkir got two for roughing for the Devils, Frank Littlejohn got two for roughing and Tomas Kudelka got two for high-sticking for Elmira.  All this added up to yet another powerplay for the Devils.  35 seconds later, recently acquired Benoit Mondou scored his first ECHL goal of the year off another feed from Gunderson to bring the score to 3-1.  For Gunderson, it was his third assist of the game.

Things calmed down a bit in the second, but the Devils' offence kept motoring on as at 11:48 on yet another powerplay, Eric Castonguay found Jim Henkel in the slot, who then fired the puck past LaCosta to give the Devils a 4-1 lead.

Elmira's Pierre-Luc Faubert scored in the third to bring the Jackals to 4-2, as the unpleasantries kicked in again.  After the goal, Elmira's Chaz Johnson and Trenton's Thomas Harrison mixed it up again, with Harrison picking up an extra two for instigation.  Everything finally came to a head with 36 seconds to play in the game when Elmira's Pierre-Luc Faubert and Frank Littlejohn went after several of the Devils players.  Faubert picked up four minutes for spearing and Littlejohn got a misconduct for cross-checking.  On the ensuing powerplay, Jim Henkel picked up his third goal of the game and his 13th of the season.

My Three Stars:
1) Jim Henkel (TRE) - Hat Trick.
2) Ryan Gunderson (TRE) - 4 Assists.
3) Benoit Mondou (TRE) - 1 Goal (Welcome Back).

~Titans Fan 25~

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