Monday, January 28, 2008

Wheeling 6, Trenton 5 (SO)

Benoit's Mondou's hat trick helped pull the Devils out of a 4-1 hole to tie the game in regulation, but it wasn't enough to pull out the victory as the Nailers won in a shootout to take the victory 6-5 in front of 3, 683 last night at Sovereign Bank Arena.

The Nailers jumped all over the Devils early, scoring their first goal only two minutes into the game when Sean Collins found the back of the net.  A minute and a half later, this time on the powerplay, former Titan Seamus Young found the back of the net to give the Nailers a 2-0 lead.

The Devils answered back early in the second on a powerplay of their own when Benoit Mondou scored his first goal of the night 1:21 into the period when Jason Bonsignore found him in the slot with a pass that Mondou wristed past Wheeling goalie Martin Houle.

The Nailers would come back in the period with an answer of their own, however, when only a minute and change later Kevin Croxton scored, and then later, at 6:28, Corxton assisted on a powerplay goal by Joe Guenther to give the Nailers a 4-1 lead.

The Devils made their own second period comeback when at 11:49 Matt Cohen found Jason Paige streaking into the Nailers zone.  Paige went top shelf on Houle to bring the Devils a bit closer, and then, only twenty seconds later, Ryan Gunderson brought them within one when he poked the puck through Houle whilst in the middle of a scrum.  The momentum wouldn't last though as Kevin Croxton scored his second of the game at 19:16 to give the Nailers a 5-3 lead.

The third period would belong to the Devils and Benoit Mondou as he would score two powerplay goals to tie the game.  He skated through the Wheeling defence at 9:11 to score his second goal of the game, and he tied the game at 17:15 with a blast to the top right corner for the hat-trick.

After an uneventful overtime period, the game went to a shootout, which did not go the Devils way.  Only Ryan Gunderson and Jason Bonsignore managed to score for Trenton, with Eric Castonguay, Benoit Mondou, Trevor Kell, and Stephen Wood all missing.

Martin Houle stopped 45 of 50 shots for the win, while Dave Carsuo stopped only 30 of 35 shots for the loss.  The Devils strap on the skates again at home on Friday against the Elmira Jackals.

My Three Stars:
1) Benoit Mondou (TRE) - Hat Trick.
2) Kevin Croxton (WHE) - 2 Goals, 2 Assists.
3) Sean Collins (WHE) - 3 Assists.

~Titans Fan 25~

1 comment:

Unknown said...

A shame Caruso picked this game to have an off night; 5 goals is a rarity and w/o Pepperall will remain so. Here's hoping they (literally) survive the Elmira Jackholes coming back to town...