Worcester Icecats Hockey - Game update



	HOLLY HOME IMPROVEMENTS AAA ALL TRASH		Worcester Icecats Game update *A view from the Cheap Seats!!* Written by 210 March 12th vs Lowell..14th vs Norfolk Two great games to write about this time. More importantly, its 2 wins. Wednesday night vs the Lowell Lock Monsters started out very slowly, almost like a chess match. Neither team really mounted that much of an attack, both seemed content to feel each other out. or perhaps they were waiting for what all the fans were... Trevor Gillis vs Jeremy Yablonski. At 13:31 of the first IceCats' and Monsters' fans saw what can could arguably be called the best fight ever at the Centrum. Both players threw big bombs in this fight with most landing. When both managed to tie each other up about half way thru the fight Yablonski got his left hand free and hit Gilles cleanly, cutting open Gilles. The fight lasted over a minute, with Yablonski winning in a close desicion. From that point on the game was just about all IceCats. The Cats broke the scoreless tie with Blake Evans' 13th of the season from Kevin Colley and Igor Valeev just 28 seconds into the 2nd period. Jeff Panzer (Eric Nickulas) and Marc Brown (Jason Dawe and Terry Virtue) also scored in the second period where the Cats outshot Lowell 17-6. The only blip on the screen was Tomas Kurka's 14th of the season at 2:40 of the 3rd on a shot that Phil Osaer should have made a better effort to get, but 2 from Nickulas (at 8:22 from Ernie Hartlieb and Panzer, and 14:24 from Mike Stuart and Virtue) crushed any chances of a Lock Monster comeback. The only downside was Trevor Gillis crosscheck of Chris Corrinet at 12:19 of the 3rd period. Gilles broke his stick over Corrinet's back and despite Gilles being one of the toughest guys in pro hockey Corrinet dropped them and strted throwing punches. It showed a lot of guts for Corrinet to fight Gilles knowing he was probably going to get beat pretty good, which he was. I have a lot of respect for him standing up for himself like that. Gilles was given a match penalty for intent to injure for the crosscheck and has been suspended for 3 games. During that "fight" Virtue was ready to jump in to protect Corrinet but was held back by the referee. If the Cats had dressed 6 defenseman instead of the 5 they did I think Virtue would have jumped in anyway. Talking about Friday night's 3-2 win vs the Norfolk Admirals words that jump to mind are pathetic, unbelievable, terrible, and disgusting. All those words and many more can be used to describe the officiating job. The AHL assigned 2 referees to the game, Dan O'Rourke and Wes McAuley. When both teams and their fans are very vocal about how bad a game is called you know just how bad it is. I guess the best thing that can be said is at least they didn't assign 3. It looked like it might be a long night for the Cats when they received a bench minor for 'too many men of the ice'--one of the few good calls on the night--and 1:38 later Evans was called for delay of game. But the Cats held there ground while down 2 men. The Admirals scored a power play goal at 3:17 on a fairly soft goal and IceCat fans must have been amagining another home game collapse. But this is not the IceCats of just a few weeks ago. While Sergei Varlamov was off on a "phantom" high sticking minor former Cat Mike Peluso went off for unsportsmanlike conduct-diving. Varlamov ended up with 2 minors and a major for high sticking in the game, all of them being just terible calls. Varlamov came out of the box to start the Cats powerplay, and was rewarded with his 22nd of the year (Corrinet and Virtue). The IceCats and Admirals traded goals within 1:06 of the 3rd period, Virtue at 10:24 (Marc Brown and Panzer) and Casey Hankinson at 11:30. The Cats were outshot 14-3 in the 3rd period but made the most of those 3, with Virtue scoring on their second shot and Greg Day's game winner at 19:19 (Tom Koivisto and Brown). An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Peluso before the face-off ended any chance of a Norfolk comeback. Curtis Sanford also made some key saves during the game to help earn the win for the IceCats. The IceCats hit the road on Saturday with a game vs the Binghamton Senators. The Cats return Sunday for the first ever visit for the Cleveland Barons to the Centrum Center.
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