Whale Five Power Play Goals in the Third Overwhelm the falcons

Eurohockey.com

Andre Deveaux tallied twice in that span and rookie Jonathan Audy-Marchessault scored the game winner tallied three point son the night extending his consecutive game scoring streak to six games and has had points in seven of his last eight games and was the games number one star.

"We got a little help with the penalties at the end. The powerplay got cranked up," said head coach Ken Gernander. Happy with gamer he responded curtly, " We got two points."  

The action got started as Deveaux tipped Russian rearguard Pavel Valentenko's bullet from the left point at 7:44 for his 5th of the season for the Bahamian born winger narrowing the Falcons lead to 3-2.Deveaux bagged his second straight goal getting behind the defensive pair of Brett Lebda and Theo Ruth and converted a rebound left by Springfield goalie Allan York who played just one period of hockey over the past 5 weeks as he was on recall to the parent Columbus Blue Jackets.

Deveaux patiently put the puck on his backhand and made sure where York was and flipped it over the prone netminder at 11:08 tying the score at three.

The next powerplay tally turned out to be the game winner as Marchessault was in the garden spot on the left wing side and the right handing shooting French-Canadian buried his eight of the season into an open net as the juicy rebound came off a Francois Bouchard  shot.

A large part of the penalties frustrated both teams as rookie referee Graham Skilliter seem to have little control of the game and his calls were mysterious to both sides including the interference call on Nick Holden that led to Marchessault's game winner.

The only call that anybody could say was good led to the last two Whale goals.

Springfield winger former NHL vet Adam Mair made a beeline for 6'3 240 pound Deveaux in the Falcons defensive zone and elbowed/highsticked directly to his head dropping the big man to his knees. He received a major for interference since the puck had yet to get to Deveaux who was going to the front of the net to position himself for another potentially tip in.

Head coach Ken Germander was emphatic when asked if the tape would be sent to the league.

"You bet right away. He (Mair) is a repeat offender. I'll leave it up to the league (to decide the matter)," said a clearly angered Gernander.

There is a history as Mair was suspended four games for a hit to Norwegian forward Matt Zuccarello in game October 22nd. Deaveaux and Mair fought the following game with Deveauz getting the better of him. Mair made several attempts to engage Deveaux in a rematch,but ddin't get an acceptance of his invitation.      

The Whale answered quickly on a 5 on 3 powerplay 31 seconds after this incident when Zuccarello fired a perfect goal line pass to winger Kris Newbury who out positioned the defenseman David Savard and redirected the puck in for his 7th of the season and 5-3 lead.

The powerplay scoring bonanza continued when Aaron Voros connected on his second of nthe year converting Kelsey Tessier's rebound at 19:41 for the 6-3 final.

The only reason the Whale were even close in the contest was the goaltender of goalie Chad Johnson who turned away 17 of 19 shots in the second period. Include g two five on three pwoerplays toptaling a 1:35 of playing time.

"You wanna play 60 minutes,but we battled through all the penalties ,stayed the course and we got the two points. It was a big win". Remarked Johnson who picke dup his eight win of the season in 14 games.

NOTES: Marchessault now leads the Whale with 22 points in a four way tie for 10th place in the scoring race and third overall for rookies…Russian Maksim Mayorov for Springfield who returned to the lineup for the Falcons after a 9 game injury absence was scratched for the Falcons…Swedish defenseman Tim Erixon sat out for the Whale for a second consecutive game and won't play Sunday afternoon whent eh defending Calder Cup champions come to Hartford for a 3pm clash….Falcons defenseman Cody Golobeuf was lost with an undisclosed hand injury…Valentenko posted his 3rd two point game in his last 4 games for the Whale….The two unique ref calls was a decision to allow the Falcons to have a wholesale line change at the start of the second period after everybody had lined up. "I asked him why. He said the home team has the last line change. I said I I didn't see anybodys hands up" said Gernander referring to the procedure of the ref with his arm in the air before the drop of the puck in which the home team can make a line change. Skilliter called the Whale for too many men on the ice in the warm-up prior to the start of the third period both were a first this reporter has seen in over 20 years of covering hockey at every level.

 

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