Niederreiter Paces Sound Tigers Come Back

The offensive outburst included three goals in a 3:03 span. The action started 3:23 on the power play as Casey Cizikas won the draw from Whale center Kelsey Tessier at the left wing faceoff circle the puck went to Swiss forward Nino Niederreiter who quickly fed defenseman Travis Harmonic  at the left point and his shot was deflected by Cizikas  past Missian for his first of the season.

Then Russian rookie Kirill Kabanov racing down the left wing slipped a perfect pass on the ice to Niederreiter who got behind Whale winger Christian Thomas and buried it low glove side and in just 1:10 of action the game was tied at two.

Cizikas in the slot converted Colin MacDonald's pass which he got from Niederreiter and Cizikas snapped off a one timer wrist shot and the ebullient crowd was now sitting in silence as the Sound Tigers built a  3-2 lead.

The Sound Tigers offensive explosion was culminated at 8:39 as Brock Nelson had a rebound of Kabanov's shot come right to him and he fired past Missiaen on the right wing side and a 4-2 lead.

Before the green light came on to end the period the Sound Tigers got the red light flashing one more time  as Swedish rookie John Persson all alone on the left wing easily redirected  Brock Nelson's pass stickside of Missiaen at 18:55 for his first professional goal in his first North American pro game on the powerplay.

The Sound Tigers continues the assault this time on rookie netminder Scott Strajcer inserted for Missiaen at the one minute mark of the third period as Brandon DeFazio tallied his first pro goal banging in a loose puck for a 5-2 lead at that point.

Defenseman Tarvis Harmonic picked up his third point of the game on the play

The Whale did make an effort to get back into the contest as defenseman Mike Vernace on a 5 on 3 powerplay ripped one from the right point that seemed to hit the post, but referee Mark Lemelin quickly ruled it a goal and at 4:27 giving the Whale some life.

Then at 6:16 veteran center Kris Newbury deep in the right wing corner threw the puck at the net and it seemed to glance of winger Chad Kolarik, but more likely off goalie Kevin Poulin and now it was just two goals at 6-4,but that as far as things would go for a possible Whale comeback.

Whale head coach Ken Gernander clearly couldn't be happy with the game one performance of his troops.

"We had a two goal lead, but we didn't play too well and if you look at the shots in the first period we were outchanced. We had opportunities to finish checks and I look at checks in separating the player from the puck and to deny them the ability to jump back into the play. Now you got guys to the right and left of you and the middle of the ice is open and that was our coverage." remarked Gernander

Whale grabbed a 2-0 lead in a fairly wide open first period with 34 shots between both teams.

The recent signing of defenseman Matt Gilroy paid off immediate dividends on their first powerplay as he fired a right point shot low on the ice and veteran Kris Newbury standing all alone to the right of Sound Tigers goalie Kevin Poulin deflected his first of the season with 15 seconds left on the man advantage at 3:31.

The Whale extended their lead to 2-0 as rookie Kyle Jean scored on a penalty shot going backhand to forehand and slipped the puck past Poulin's outstretched right pad at 5:12.

The penalty shot was first scored by a Whale player since Swedish forward Carl Hagelin scored on the road in an 8-4 loss to St. John's on November 12th of  last season.

The Sound Tigers had their chances against Whale rookie netminder Jason Missian stopping Matt Donavan at 5:33 and then Swiss forward Nino Niederreiter from the left wing faceoff circle at 5:56 and then a minute later denied Ty Wishart from the right point on a bouncing puck..

NOTE: Kabanov,Nelson and local product Colin MacDonald  had two points…Kyle jeand Newbury had two points apiece for the Whale…Two teams combined for 76 shots on goal…Whale were 2 for 8 on the powerplay and the Sound Tigers 2 for 7…Attendance was 8,146 one of the netter home opening crowds in the 16 history of the Whale/Wolf Pack franchise…Swiss defenseman Thomas Pock a  former Wolf Pack player picked up an assist in Lake Erie's 2-1n win over the juggernaut offense of the Oklahoma City Barons 2-1.

 

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