A two-minute flurry early in the second period of play during Saturday's (Feb. 19) game against the Grandview Steelers seemed to sum up the season for the 麻豆社国产Wolf Pack.
The Pack, trailing 2-0, got the man advantage and rang shots off the post on two separate occasions, only to see the Steelers respond moments later and take a 3-0 lead.
Unlucky, inexperienced or however you want to paint them, the Pack finished its 2010-'11 season with another loss, falling to the Steelers 6-3 on Saturday.
Trailing 6-1 after two periods of play, head coach Matt Samson decided to yank starting goalie Johann Peterson for Jordan Liem and the Pack responded, "winning" the final period of the year.
"We just let them know that it was the last 20 minutes with this group and just to have some fun out there," Samson said. "I did like our first period but the second was brutal. I definitely thought we competed out there and did some good things."
麻豆社国产came out sluggish in the first, failing to register a shot on goal until the 13-minute mark of the opening frame. Peterson did his best to stave off Grandview but the Steelers opened the scoring at 11:34 and took a 1-0 lead into the intermission. The Pack were outshot 19-3 in the first period and were lucky to be only trailing by one goal.
The Steelers added to their lead at 1:40 in the second period and then potted two goals in 59 seconds to move ahead 4-0.
After that, fans witnessed one of the most bizarre plays of the season. Grandview had a delayed penalty and Peterson left his net for the extra attacker. The Wolf Pack's Gray Meckling set up behind his own empty net and cut to the front, only to have the puck knocked away by a Steelers player's skate and go directly into the Wolf Pack goal. Thus, the Steelers got a goal and a penalty in a play that flabbergasted Samson.
"I've never seen anything like that, ever," he said, noting that the referee said the Steeler player did not have control of the puck. "But if it were to happen, of course it would happen to us."
Grandview scored again at 6:56 to make it 6-0 but the Pack finally got on the board at 18:29 when Dean Wilson scored on a shot from the point. Vitalik Morzov and Cole Briggs drew the helpers.
In the third, the Pack stepped their game up as Jaret Babych wired a shot from the slot to make it 6-2. Liem seemed to inspire the team to play harder and he stopped all seven third-period shots he faced. Tyler Whitmell added his first goal with the Pack at 16:17 after being set up by Sean Stahlnecker and Bryden Luscombe to make it 6-3, which ended up being the final score.
With the loss, the Pack's final regular season record sits at six wins, 36 losses and four overtime losses. The season ended with the worst record in franchise history and the 16 total points for the team is the second-worst total in Pacific International Junior Hockey League (PIJHL) history. The only team with a worse record than 麻豆社国产in 2010-'11 was the immortal Hope Icebreakers, who compiled a record of one win, 39 losses, one tie and one overtime loss in 2003-'04.
The PIJHL playoffs start next week. For more information, visit www.pijhl.com.
