NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. � The Arkansas RiverBlades scored four goals and had the luck of the Irish on their side to defeat the Mississippi Sea Wolves, 4-1 on St. Patrick�s Day.
The Sea Wolves remain in first place in the Southwest Division with 86 points, five ahead of idle Louisiana for second place.
Arkansas (32-21-11) opened the score at 15:59. Damon Whitten buried a wraparound through Greg Gardner. Whitten�s 11th of the campaign was assisted by the ECHL�s leading scorer Buddy Smith and Dean Stock.
In the second, the RiverBlades made it 2-0 on the power play. Dean Stock potted a rebound at 6:24, notching his seventh of the campaign. Garry Toor and Smith collected the helpers Arkansas added to its lead at 7:47.
Smith darted in on the breakaway netting his 27th of the year to make it 3-0 for the RiverBlades. Jason Bermingham and Ryan Coole registered the assists.
Mississippi (41-22-4) tried to rally beginning with just 14 seconds left in the middle stanza. Mike Scott solved goaltender Scott Fankhouser by sliding a rebound into the net on the Sea Wolves 27th shot of the game. Jeff Hutchins and Patrick Rochon picked up the assists. It was the 200th point for Rochon in his Sea Wolves career.
The RiverBlades regained their three-goal advantage in the third at 6:42. Terry Marchant let go with a shot from the left circle, scoring his 20th of the season.
Gardner had his nine-game win streak snapped, stopping 26-of-30 shots to drop to 29-15-4. Fankhouser turned away 37-of-38 to raise his record to 17-15-3 on the season.
Mississippi failed to score on five chances with the man advantage. Arkansas converted on 1-of-2 power play chances.
Mississippi gets back into action on the road Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Louisiana. The start time for the Sea Wolves next home game on Sunday has been changed to 7:05 p.m. against Arkansas at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
Individual game tickets are available at all Ticketmaster locations, the Mississippi Coast Coliseum box office and by calling 228-594-3707.
|
