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2003 December Game Commentaries Tri-City Fights Back for 5-3 Win Kearney, NE (12.05.03): Period 1: Brad Peterson gets the Bucs on the board early with assists to J.P. Platisha and Ryan Raven at the 4:48 mark to give the Bucs the early 1-0 lead. Two minutes later, Tri-City's John Dingle ties the game on the power play. At 11:04 mark, Chad Costello re-gains the lead for the Bucs with helpers to Tom May and Marty Mjelleli. Mike Neilon adds to the lead with an assist to Pat Borgestad at the 14:24 point. Period 2: Tri-City's Bill Thomas gets the lone goal of the period at the 15:06 to cut the lead to 3-2 in favor of the Bucs. Period 3: Tri-City ties the game with 6:04 left on the clock with another goal from John Dingle. Then with 2:10 left on the clock Thomas gives the Storm the lead. Steve Wagner finishes off the scoring with 34 seconds left with an empty-netter, to seal the 5-3 victory for the Storm. Written by Kevin Kasel. Sioux City, IA (12.06.03): Des Moines paid their last visit to the historical Sioux City's "Audi". They were able to come away with 2 points with a 3-2 shoot-out win. Scoring for the Bucs was Adam Miller (G, A), Marty Mjelleli (2A) and Samir Saliji (G, A). Brian Papcun stopped 25 of 27 shots on the night (according to pointstreak.com, as of 7:55 PM CST, Sunday, December 7, 2003). Period 1: Prior to the game starting, Sioux City recognized Bob Ferguson for his contribution to the history of the "Audi" as a player and Head Coach for the Musketeers. OK, onto the game, early on Des Moines had chances but were unable convert the chances into a goal. Sioux City gets on the board first when Mike Ramirez slides the puck across the ice to Johann Kroll who has an open net to shot at from the face-off circle at the 6:41 mark. At the 8:49 mark, Joe Piskula (6'-3", 205 lbs) and Troy Brummett (5'-8", 180 lbs) decided to "dance". Piskula has a 7" and 25 pounds on Brummett and took care of him handily. Somewhat reminded me of some 8th grader beating up on a 3rd grader with the size difference in this match-up. At the 17:50 point, Marty Mjelleli feed the puck up to Adam Miller, who then fed a one-timer to Samir Saliji to tie the game 1-1. Period 2: This period saw the Muskies get caught for about seven 2-line passes. I don't think these lines have moved in the history of the Audi, so they should be familiar with the small neutral zone and where the red and blue lines are, since this is their home home. The only scoring in the period happened at the 10:07 mark, when Saliji started the Bucs out of the zone with a pass to Mjelleli, who came down the right wing and feed a pass across to a streaking Miller to make it 2-1 Bucs. Period 3: Early in the period, Sioux City goes on the power play and is able to convert when Matt Hart Hartman gets a cross ice pass and has an open net to shot at from the right face-off circle. Almost the exact same spot their first goal came from in the first period to tie it 2-2. After 60 minutes of play, the score was tied and we headed to overtime. I think the wiring (or something) in the Audi must be going bad, they only show Sioux City with 1 shot on goal and Des Moines with 0 shots on goal in the third period. Overtime: The "bad wiring" continued into the overtime, has no shots on goal happened in the overtime period. Bucs had a later power play opportunity, when Mike Erickson was tripped from behind on a break-away with about 34 seconds left in the OT. The Bucs were unable to convert the power play opportunity, and once again, the Bucs and Muskies headed to a shoot-out this season. Shoot-out: Miller is the Bucs first shooter and beats Jimmy Spratt high glove side. Brian Papcun stops Brummett. Saliji scores high glove side to make it 2-1. Hartman is able to get one 5-hole on Papcun to make it 2-1 Bucs after 2 rounds in the shoot-out. Mike Neilon tries to get one past Spratt on the backhand, but rolls off his stick before he can get good wood on the shot. Papcun turns away Travis Turnbull's attempt to keep it 2-1 Bucs after three shooters. Erickson is unable to get his shot past Spratt. Michael Hodgson gets his shot past Papcun to make it 2-2 after four shooters. Pat Borgestad beats Spratt high glove side to give the Bucs the advantage. Papcun stops Anthony Cosmano's attempt with his left pad for the Bucs to claim victory for the last time in the Audi. Other notes: Stanley81: you need to work on catching those pucks when they do come over the glass. I will miss going to the Audi, but look forward to the new Tyson/IBP Event Center when the Bucs play there Saturday, January 10, 2004. Written by Kevin Kasel.
Short-handed Bucs Fall to Storm Des Moines, IA (12.12.03): The Des Moines Buccaneers had their work cut out for them Friday with the first place Tri-City Storm in town. Losing players to the flu didn't make matters any easier for the Bucs, as they lost to the Storm 3-1 at the Metro Ice Sports Arena. Good defense prevailed in the first period, as both teams battled to a scoreless tie at the first intermission. However, the Storm came out hot in the second period, picking up two goals in the first ten minutes. Buccaneer goalie Brian Papcun shut Tri-City down the rest of the period, but another Storm goal early in the third period sealed the Bucs fate. Mike Erickson scored Des Moines' lone goal with less than two minutes left in the game. Written by Dustin Godsey.
Bucs Fall to Steel in Slugfest Des Moines, IA (12.13.03): The Des Moines Buccaneers had a shot at defeating the Chicago Steel Saturday night at the Metro Ice Sports Arena. Actually, they had fifty-two shots at winning. The Bucs out-shot the Steel 52-29, but ultimately fell by a final score of 4-3. The Bucs began attacking goalie Adam D'Alba early; putting up eighteen shots on goal in the first twenty minutes, but Chicago took a 2-1 lead into the locker rooms at the first intermission. Mike Erickson scored Des Moines' first goal, with assists from Jesse Lane and Davis Drewiske. The second period belonged to Chicago's Eric Slais, who put two shots past goalie Brian Papcun to give the Steel a 4-1 lead after two periods. Des Moines cut the lead to two with a power play goal twenty-eight seconds into the third period, and Adam Miller followed with a score eight minutes later to bring the Bucs within one at 4-3. The Bucs dominated the final ten minutes of the game, but missed out on a number of opportunities to tie the game. Written by Dustin Godsey. Bucs Top First-Place RoughRiders Des Moines (12.28.03): The Buccaneers started the second-half of the season in the same fashion as they ended the first-half, with a win over an East Division team. This time, with a new goaltender in net, the Bucs defeated the first-place Cedar Rapids RoughRiders 4-1 at the Metro Ice Sports Arena on Sunday afternoon. Pat Watson’s career as a Bucs’ goalie got off to a good start Sunday, as he held the RoughRiders scoreless for the first fifty-eight minutes of the game. He stopped thirty-six of Cedar Rapids’ thirty-seven shots, and missed getting the second straight shutout for Des Moines by a minute and twenty-seven seconds. Unlike Cedar Rapids, the Bucs’ offense got untracked early, with Tom May putting them up 1-0 less than three minutes into the game. Samir Saliji made it a two-goal differential at the first intermission with his twelfth goal of the season. Mike Erickson picked up the lone goal of the second period, off assists from Jesse Lane and Pat Borgestad. Lane and Borgestad teamed up again in the third period, to set-up Mike Neilon for the final Bucs’ score of the game. Written by Dustin Godsey.
Des Moines (12.31.03): The Des Moines Buccaneers have their first official winning streak of the season, picking up their third straight win with a New Year’s Eve victory over the River City Lancers. Pat Watson, starting the second game of his USHL career, earned a 5-0 shutout over the rivals from Omaha/Council Bluffs. Watson, who nearly had a shutout in his first Bucs start, stopped all twenty-four River City shots and raised his save percentage to .984 after two games. The Bucs offense gave him plenty of cushion early, scoring three goals in the first twenty-three minutes of the game. Dave Watters scored his first goal of the season on an unassisted shot midway through the first period, to give the Bucs the early lead. Pat Borgestad and Brad Peterson added two goals in the first three minutes of the second period to give the Bucs a 3-0. Ryan Raven also picked up his first goal of the season in the game, during the sixth minute of the third period. Team captain Mike Erickson finished off the night’s scoring with his thirteenth goal of the season, with a minute and two seconds left in the game. The Bucs nearly won six free Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts for every fan in attendance. A new promotion with Krispy Kreme awards six of their signature doughnuts to every fan in the house every time the Bucs score six goals in a home game. Fans urged the Bucs on for the final sixty-two seconds, but the Bucs fell just shy of the reaching the magic score. Written by Dustin Godsey. Continue with January Game Commentaries > |
