IceCaps don’t tank vs Sharks
St. John’s rallies from 4-0 deficit for overtime win
OK, let’s see. Where do we start?
And how do we best describe Sunday afternoon’s, uh, unique American league game between St. John’s and Worcester, one that saw the IceCaps spot the Sharks four goals, before rallying with four of their own in the third period and the winner in overtime? Improbable? Weird? Crazy? “How about resilient?” smiled sophomore IceCaps defenceman Brenden Kichton, who shook off sickness to score one of the IceCaps’ goals during the third-period rally, and then the winner 3:25 into the extra session.
“We came into the second intermission and were pretty dejected. We said if we got a couple right away before 10-minute mark, we could give ourselves a chance to win. “And look what happened.” Yes, look what happened. The IceCaps were — and how can we say this daintily — Godawful through 40 minutes. Sure, the Sharks had plenty of power plays — five straight to start the game — but it could be argued Worcester was skating St. John’s into the Mile One ice, looking for the sweep following a 3-1 win Saturday night.
The visitors led by two after the first period, in which they outshot St. John’s 20-4, and 4-0 after 40 minutes. Connor Hellebuyck, making his franchiserecord 14th straight start, was pulled in favour of Jussi Olkinuora to begin the third.
But a funny thing happened in the final frame. Blair Riley scored 5:39 in, and that was followed by goals from Patrice Cormier, Kichton and Chase Balisy with the tying marker at 18:19 and Olkinuora on the bench for an extra attacker.
Talk about your tale of two teams.
“We were terrible in the first and second,” Riley acknowledged, “and that stems from not being prepared to play. We took poor stick penalties and some lazy tripping penalties in the offensive zone.
“We can’t be down 5-0 in power play opportunities,” he said. “They scored four PP goals and that’s not on the goaltending or the penalty kill.
That’s not being prepared to play.
“But you have to be really pleased with how we responded. It just shows what we can do if we play a full game.”
The win brought the IceCaps to 23-23-5-2, and was particularly important as Worcester is one of the teams the IceCaps are chasing in the AHL’s Eastern Conference.
With the loss, the Sharks fall to 26-17-4-2 and seventh in the East.
If the IceCaps secure a playoff spot this season — and if Sunday’s game is any indication, anything is possible with this crowd — the win over the Sharks just might go down as a turning point in the year.
“It will be something if we can push towards a playoff run, and something really exciting,” said Riley, who was an assist short of a Gordie Howe hat trick after getting the decision over Taylor Fedun in a second-period scrap. “We really felt like our playoff lives were on the line.
“We’ve got just over 20 games left (in the regular season) so we can’t be giving up any points, especially to a team we’re chasing. They were huge, huge points. I can’t stress that enough.”
Olkinuora stopped all eight shots he faced in the third for his first win on the year as an IceCap. Hellebuyck stopped 28 of 32 shots.
The IceCaps fired 28 shots at Aaron Dell.
St. John’s now hits the road for six games, beginning Friday night in Manchester, N.H., against the Monarchs.