Renegades 9 Yeti 8 Overtime
Goals – Llewellyn 3, Gates 2, Matchock 2, Lehman 2
Goals – Reiter 4, Schuckers 2, Currin 2
Assists – Hunter 3, Lehman 3, Matchock 1, Stinchcomb 1
Assists – Reiter 4, Schuckers 2
Saves – McKinley 34, Clontz 27
Scratches: Jacobson
Renegades Sweep Yeti
On opening night of the regular season, the Yeti were able to hold the Renegades to two goals. The Renegades struggles continued as the regular season went on, but after last night, its pretty safe to say that they have found their stride. For spectators, game 1 did not disappoint. The Renegades found themselves up 8 to 4 midway thru the 3rd period and it looked like they were well on their way to a game 1 victory. After 2 periods, the game was tied at 4 but 4 quick goals, two of them coming from Eric Llewellyn, put them up 8 to 4. The Renegades 8th goal, this time from Derrian Matchock, made Yeti goalie and captain Adam McKinley call for a time out. The time out worked out perfectly. Brandon Reiter scored within seconds after the time out to get the Yeti within 3 and shortly after, Jarrod Currin found the back of the net to get them within 2. Mike Lehman quickly called for time out, but their time out did not stop the bleeding. Cody Schuckers scored to get them within a goal at 8 to 7 and just seconds later, Jarrod Currin scored again to tie the game at 8. Even rink owner Jennifer Schuckers was surprised at how quickly the Yeti came back. Watching the game from their office, she stepped aside for 5 minutes, came back in, looked at the scoreboard and saw it had 8 to 8. On the faceoff following Jarrod Currin’s goal, Brandon Reiter and Cody Schuckers found themselves on a 2 on 1 break with a golden opportunity to go ahead, but Josh Clontz made 2 big saves to help the Renegades at least get the game to overtime following their mid 3rd period meltdown. In overtime, both teams had some opportunities denied, but Mike Lehman found the back of the net over two minutes into overtime to give the Renegades the game 1 victory. The game was close the whole way. Eric Llewellyn got the scoring started in the first period, followed by another goal from Gus Gates to give the Renegades an early 2-0 lead. Derrian Matchock made it 3-1 but 1st year Yeti member Brandon Reiter had answers for all the Renegade early goals. Reiter scored the Yeti’s first 3 goals and the game was eventually tied at 3 late in the 2nd period. The two teams exchanged goals after that, with Gus Gates scoring his 2nd goal of the game for the Renegades to temporarily put them up 4-3 before Cody Schuckers scored his first goal of the game to tie it up at 4 after 2 periods. Then there was the wild 3rd period. Both goalies were busy. Adam McKinley made 34 saves for the Yeti. Renegade 2nd year goalie Josh Clontz made 27 saves, with a couple big saves late, to help prevent the Yeti from going ahead at the end. Eric Llewellyn had 3 goals, with teammates Gus Gates, Derrian Matchock and Mike Lehman each adding 2 goals. Pat Hunter and Mike Lehman each had 3 assists. For the Yeti, Brandon Reiter had 4 goals. Teammate Cody Schuckers had 4 points. Jarrod Currin had 2 goals as well. Game 2 took place after the Xtreme beat the Knights 5 to 4 in overtime.
Renegades 11 Yeti 2
Goals – Llewellyn 3, Hunter 3, Vollmer 1, Lehman 1, Matchock 1, Gates 1, Stinchcomb 1
Goals – Schuckers 1, Reiter 1
Assists – Gates 3, Llewellyn 2, Hunter 2, Vollmer 1
Assists – Fatula 1
Saves – McKinley 29, Clontz 16
Six goals in 3rd period puts game 2 away
Game 2 started a little different. The Yeti changed from white to blue in an attempt to change their luck. Soon afterwards, they found themselves up 1-0 following a goal from Cody Schuckers. It looked like the lead could extend when Reigning finals MVP Pat Hunter spent a lot of time on the bench trying to fix the wheels on his skates. The Yeti had a stretch of 2 or 3 minutes of firing shots Josh Clontz’s way, but he kept denying them. From there, Eric Llewellyn was able to tie the game at 1 and Pat Hunter was able to make his way back onto the court. Brandon Vollmer found the back of the net in the later stages of the 1st period to give the Renegades a 2-1 lead going into the 2nd. The game went back and forth in the 2nd which saw Brandon Reiter tie the game at 2 and it looked like another potential close game was going to be in the making. Eric Llewellyn and Pat Hunter found themselves on a 2-1 break, Llewellyn decided to shoot but was denied by Yeti goalie Adam McKinley but Hunter was right there for the rebound to put the Renegades up 3-2. No one knew at the time, but this goal put the Renegades ahead to stay. Eric Llewellyn quickly followed with a goal of his own to make it 4 to 2 then Denny Stinchcomb scored to make it 5 to 2 going into the 3rd period. Any thoughts of another Yeti 3rd period comeback vanished when Eric Llewellyn and Pat Hunter scored consecutive goals to put the Renegades up 7-2. They kept pouring it on in the 3rd, making sure there would be no overtime. Derrian Matchock, Mike Lehman, Pat Hunter and Gus Gates each contributed goals down the stretch to send the Renegades to an 11-2 game 2 win to help sweep the series. With the win, the Renegades will be making their 2nd straight trip to the finals. For a potential rematch of last season to take place, the Knights will need to sweep the Xtreme on Wednesday night. Gus Gates and Eric Llewellyn were not on last seasons’s championship team but both played a big role in helping them sweep this series. The two combined for 14 points in last night’s sweep. For the Yeti, it was the 3rd straight year of getting swept in the semifinal series. Captain Adam McKinley made 29 saves in game 2 last night. McKinley mentioned that the team would be playing without an important player last night in Mike Jacobson.
Xtreme 5 Knights 4 Overtime
Goals – Smith 2, Bussard 2, Walter 1
Goals – Calvert 2, Schindler 1, Kline 1
Assists – Jewell 3
Assists – McMinn 1, Kline 1, Rutherford 1
Saves – Lingenfelter 27, Schickling 24
Scratches: Tosh/Zimmerman
Joe Bussards overtime goal leads Xtreme to 5-4 win over Knights
Following a convincing sweep over the Spare Parts, the Knights once again had the luxury of getting to pick their next playoff opponent. The choice wasn’t going to be easy, as the Yeti and Renegades both beat them this season and the Xtreme only lost by one goal in each regular season meeting. On Friday, Kurt Schindler informed the league that they were going to take their chances with the Xtreme. Less than two minutes into last night’s game, Jake Kline scored on a long shot to give the Knights an early 1-0 lead. They found themselves on a power play just minutes later with a chance to go up 2-0, but Kevin Smith made a nice interception off Jerred Amick around the center line, found himself on a fast break and beat Knight goalie Todd Schickling to tie the game up at 1. Andy Calvert answered to give the Knights a 2-1 lead but Kevin Smith would score again late in the first period to tie the game up at 2. In the 2nd period, the Xtreme were able to take a 3 to 2 lead following a goal from Chad Walter but Andy Calvert would eventually score again for the Knights to tie the game up at 3 after 2 periods. About 5 minutes into the 3rd period, Kurt Schindler scored to put the Knights ahead 4 to 3. The lead would last a little while until a shot from Joe Bussard was temporarily slowed down by Knights goalie Todd Schickling, but Schickling was unable to catch the ball in the air and it eventually found its way past the goal line to tie the game at 4. Both teams had good chances late in regulation, but both goalies stood tall and once again, overtime was needed to determine who would go up in the series. Not long into overtime, Dave Jewell had a shot denied by Todd Schickling but it found its way to Joe Bussard who ended up finding the back of the net to give the Xtreme the 5-4 overtime win. It was Bussard’s 2nd goal of the night, with the other one being the tying goal in regulation. He now has 12 goals in 3 playoff games. Dave Jewell assisted on 3 of the Xtreme’s 5 goals. Andy Calvert and Jake Kline each had 2 points for the Knights. Clint Lingenfelter allowed the first shot of the game to go in, but played very well from there, making 27 saves for the Xtreme. On the other side, Todd Schickling made 24 saves. The Knights were playing without Jordan Tosh and the Xtreme was playing without Jon Zimmerman. Game 2 will be played at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. With the Knights speed and youth, Xtreme leader Dave Jewell said that his team will be in trouble if they aren’t able to put the Knights away in game 2. Tomorrow nights survivor will take on the Renegades in the finals. It was the 3rd time this season that the Xtreme/Knights game was decided by a goal.
Gus Gates (Protein bars go a long ways)
1. Onto the finals. What can you say about the overall team effort tonight? I thought the overall team effort was outstanding tonight. Everyone committed and skated as hard as they could. Josh was especially huge in the first period of the 2nd game for us. He made countless saves in a span of a few minutes 2. A 4 goal 3rd period lead got away in game 1. What was going thru your mind before overtime? In overtime, all I kept thinking was "don't let Cody shoot." Once overtime started we knew we just had to get back to our game plan. We didn't sit back - got our forecheck going, forced a turnover and Lehman roofed the winner. 3. You were able to extend a 5 to 2 lead into an 11 to 2 win in game 2. What do you think you guys did better in the 3rd period this time around? I think the 3rd period onslaught was due to the protein bars that Llewy picked up between games at the gas station lol. I think come the 3rd period we knew we had to keep playing hard otherwise they would come back like Game 1. With Brandon and Cody together, the game could change instantly, so we knew we had to keep on the attack and finish it. 4. They swept the regular season series and held your team to 7 goals in 2 games. How were you able to score 20 on them tonight? When we played the Yeti in the regular season, we were still finding our game and team chemistry. As Llewy and I didn't play with them last summer, we had to get used to everyone's style of play (including each others) and vise versa. I think we finally got that team chemistry in the last 1/3 of the regular season. Tonight we knew we had to force turnovers and get a lot of shots, and thats what we did, which led to the 20 goals. It was a wild 2 games tonight and the Yeti played very hard. 5. How do you think you guys match up against the knights and xtreme? I will be interested to see the outcome of the game(s) on Wednesday - the Knights and Xtreme are 2 really good teams. Whoever we play, I know it will be an intense series and each team will have to bring their "A" game!