Jan 21, 2014 | rswigger | 876 views
Sepoy victory ties series
Monday night's game in Lucknow could have been one where the Ice Dogs put the Sepoys on the ropes, but without hustle and muscle, the Dogs now find themselves all even in the 6 point series.
Despite a lob-sided first period where the Ice Dogs out-chanced their opponents, it was a period you knew had to come back and haunt the visiting side. With at least a half dozen good scoring chances, the Dogs were just not able to put the puck on net and found themselves with the smallest of leads going into the second. Brett's goal early on seemed like it might be the first of many, but by the second--and certainly the third--the chances all but dried up while a tenacious Lucknow team just kept working away.
The team play from game one was hard to find in game three; passing was down, forechecking all but extinct, and shots missing the net were all punctuated by some extremely long shifts in the third--a recipe for heavy legs on the big Lucknow ice that led to some inopportune turnovers in the defensive zone. In the end, the Ice Dogs dropped game 3, 2-1.
So now it's down to a 2 out of 3, and the Dogs are bound for Lucknow on Wednesday and Friday. And despite a few disappointing trends re-emerging from games 2 and 3, it's hard not to think that even when the Ice Dogs aren't playing well, the games couldn't be closer. With one or two better-finished plays, the Ice Dogs could still easily push back the building Sepoy momentum.