The Des Moines Buccaneers hosted the Indiana Ice this evening, a team that is 20 points better in the standings than the hometown favorites. But in an evening replete with firsts and wild action, the Bucs played a very strong game and handed the visitors 4-3 loss to start their seven game road trip.
Before the game even started, the first interesting sight was seeing six officials take to the ice. Two would leave prior to the start of the game though, with referees Tom Albindia and Colin Kronforst calling the game. USHL Commissioner Skip Prince was also in attendance this evening, and performed a ceremonial drop of the puck.
Coach Simon started Pheonix Copley in goal, with Connor Schmidt and Zack Rall on defense, and Patrick Kirtland, Cal Decowski, and Garrett Allen leading the offense. In another first for the evening, Kevin Irwin made his return to the lineup after being sidelined with an injury since mid-January.
The Ice found themselves down a man before the pre-game celebration smoke had cleared, when Tyler Pham was called for elbowing just 29 seconds into the game. The Bucs were unable to capitalize though, and the two teams traded chances back and forth. When Connor Varley was called for tripping at 12 minutes into the game, the Bucs found themselves a man down and the Ice wasted no time taking the lead. They won the ensuing face-off in the Bucs zone and scored five seconds later. Not to be outdone, the Bucs followed up with a power play score of their own when Garrett Allen skated in and took a shot on Ice goalie Dalton Izyk. Izyk left a juicy rebound that Justin Hussar found and he buried it to tie the game at 1. After 20 minutes of fairly even play, the Ice lead on the shot clock 18-12, and the score remained tied at 1-1.
The Ice started the second period strong. First, they kept the Bucs from scoring during a two-man advantage that carried over from the end of the first period. Then they were able to find the net behind Copley just as a power play of their own had expired. That would be the last time they would lead in the game, as their wheels fell off and they seemed to get totally unglued. The Bucs turned up their physical play, and they leveled some hard hits on the visitors. Their physical play paid off when Anthony Greco took a beautiful pass from Justin Hussar and tied the game halfway through the period. Three minutes later, Hussar again made a sharp pass, this time to Gasper Kopitar who was all alone in front of Izyk, and the Bucs went up 3-2. Luke Voltin got his first goal as a Buccaneer when he scored on the power play two minutes later, working hard and taking the puck from the right corner, across the front of the goal and beating Izyk high over his right shoulder. That would be the game winning goal. When the carnage was over, the Bucs led 4-2 and they had amassed a 27-7 advantage in shots for the second period.
The Ice tried to get back on track in the third period, but it was too little too late. Ryan Obuchowski scored a power play goal eight minutes into the period to bring the visitors to within one, but they still didn't seem to be able to match the physical play that the Bucs were dishing out. As the period wound down, Izyk was pulled for the extra attacker. The Bucs then found themselves in a deep hole, as both Anthony Greco and Garrett Allen were called off for penalties at 19:07 and 19:37 respectively. The Bucs had to play the last 23 seconds of the game on the wrong end of what was essentially a 6 on 3 power play. The home team was up to the task though, and they held off the Ice to take the win. The Bucs were outshot 15-8 in the final period, with most of the Ice's shots coming toward the end of the period. For the game, though, the Bucs held on to a 47-40 shot advantage. The Ice were 2 for 6 on the power play, while the Bucs were 2 for 7.
With tonight's win, the Bucs find themselves still in sixth place in the Western Conference with a 16-21-4 record and 36 points. They trail Sioux City by only one point for fifth place, and they still have a game in the hand against the Stampede who lost against Lincoln this evening. Coach Simon picked up his 150th career victory with the win this evening, nearly all of them with the Bucs. He is only the 14th coach in USHL history to hit that mark, and he is fourth in number of wins among active USHL coaches.
The Bucs next game is at home on Sunday afternoon at 5 PM against the Waterloo Blackhawks. Tickets for the game are still available. The afternoon starts at 2 PM with the “Guns and Hoses” charity game, featuring firefighters versus police officers.
All statistical information is provided by Pointstreak and theUSHL.
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