FALCONS BEAT SHARKS 7-2 AT THE NEST

September 25, 2009 - The Falcons opened up their preseason home opener with a very impressive 7-2 win over the Worcester Sharks.

The Falcons blew the game open in the second period scoring six goals, including two power play goals. The goals came quick and in bunches for the Falcons.
The first goal of the second period belonged to Falcons forward Dylan Stanley, assisted by Adam Henrich, at the 3:09 mark. The Sharks answered quickly with a goal at the 4:24 mark on the power play by Michael Wilson cutting the lead to 2-1.

LIVE BOX SCORE

The Falcons rebounded nicely after the Wilson goal seemed to give the Sharks the momentum. Less than a minute after the Wilson goal, Falcons forward Ryan MacMurchy scored to make it a 3-1 lead. That was the second goal for the Falcons in as many minutes.

“That was a huge turning point in the game,” Head Coach Rob Daum said about the MacMurchy goal. “They just scored to make 2-1 and Bryan Lundbohm made a great play along the wall keeping the puck in, winning a battle, made a superb pass to Colin McDonald and Colin found Ryan all alone in the slot and he put it home.”

From that point on the Falcons never looked back taking control of the game.

“It was a turning point,” Coach Daum said about his team’s play after the MacMurchy goal.  “It seemed to deflate them (the Sharks) a little bit because they had just scored and thought maybe that they could take some momentum and we took it away from them right away, it was key.”

Following the MacMurchy goal, the Falcons went on to score three more goals in a row, making it four straight scores total, to increase their lead to 6-1. Scoring at the 9:59 mark of the second period was Bryan Lerg on a 5-on-3 power play. Assisting on the play was Cody Wild.  Still on the power play, Chris Armstrong scored his first goal of the preseason for the Falcons making it a 5-1 lead over Worcester. Wild also assisted on the Armstrong goal.

Next to score for Springfield was forward Slava Trukhno at the 11:44 mark with an unassisted goal. That was the third goal in three minutes for the Falcons, making it 6-1.
After a goal by Sharks forward Bill Loupee, the Falcons Charles Linglet scored an unassisted goal making it 7-2 going into the third period.

“After a game like this you could see the team starting to build a chemistry that hopefully will continue on for the rest of the season,” said MacMurchy.  “And it started to show our skill and there’s a lot of it on this team. It was nice to see it open up for us a little bit. Everybody kind of got in there and contributed and got some confidence.”

No goals were scored in the third period, but there was a fight between Falcons defenseman Matt Nickerson and Sharks defenseman Will Colbert. Nickerson got the better of that battle.

Earlier in the first period the Falcons struck first with a goal by Adam Henrich at the 5:48 mark. Assisting on the goal was defenseman Jesse Dudas. The Sharks had a chance to tie the game in the first period on a 5-on-3 power play after penalties by Henrich and defenseman R.J. Anderson, but Falcons goalie Andrew Perugini shut down the Sharks until the end of the power play. Perugini played well in the first period recording eight saves.

The Falcons outshot the Sharks in the game, 21 to 20. Springfield went 2 for 6 on power play for the game. Perugini and Bryan Pitton split time in goal for the Falcons, giving up only two goals on 20 shot. Henrich and Wild led the Falcons skaters with two points each. The Falcons rebounded nicely after the tough loss Wednesday night to Providence.

“It feels great because Wednesday we battled for 60 minutes,” said Henrich about getting the first win of the season.  “And we didn’t give up. Unfortunately, we came down on the losing end. Today we didn’t let up even though we kept scoring and scoring. Guys were finishing their hits.”

The Falcons will next host the Providence Bruins Saturday night at 7pm at the MassMutual Center to finish off the preseason.

Springfield Falcons Lineup

7 Charles Linglet – 39 Adam Henrich – 16 Dylan Stanley
8 Bryan Lerg – 11 Slava Trukhno – 22 Jamie Bates
12 Ryan MacMurchy – 15 Bryan Lundbohm – 18 Colin McDonald
31 Marc Rechlicz – 20 Geoff Paukovich – 27 Riley Emmerson

3 Chris Armstrong – 5 Johan Motin
37 Cody Wild – 6 Matt Nickerson
4 Jesse Dudas – 24 R.J. Anderson

1 Bryan Pitton
35 Andrew Perugini

Extras: 36 Bryan Young, 34 Kelly Czuy, 30 John Hallas

Worcester Sharks Lineup

7 John McCarthy – 22 Andrew Desjardins – 23 Dan DaSilva
12 Matt Jones – 15 Steven Zalewski – 16 Dean Strong
19 Evgeni Saidachev – 38 Mathieu Curadeau – 21 Sean O’Connor
9 Devon LeBlanc – 11 Corey Quirk – 18 Carter Lee
 
20 Michael Wilson – 33 Louis Liotti
44 Will Colbert – 25 Zach Jones
24 Tom Morrow – 10 Steve McClellan
 
29 Adam Russo
35 Kris Tebbs

IN-GAME REPORT

FIRST PERIOD

Adam Henrich opened the scoring for Springfield at 5:48 of the opening frame when he redirected a Jesse Dudas slap shot.

SECOND PERIOD

In the second period, the scoring was fast and furious for the Falcons as they continued to apply offensive pressure all period long.  Dylan Stanley gave the Falcons a 2-0 lead just 3:09 into the middle period.  Worcester's Michael Wilson cut the Sharks' deficit to 2-1, but the Falcons answered back with goals from Ryan MacMurchy, Bryan Lerg, Chris Armstrong, Slava Trukhno and Charles Linglet to build a 7-2 lead through 40 minutes of play.

THIRD PERIOD

The teams played a scoreless third period with Springfield's Matt Nickerson and Worcester's Will Colbert going toe-to-toe in a late fight with Nickerson scoring the win.

FALCONS LINEUP

Charles Linglet (7) - Adam Henrich (39) - Dylan Stanley (16)
Bryan Lerg (8) - Slava Trukhno (11) - Jamie Bates (22)
Ryan MacMurchy (12) - Bryan Lundbohm (15) - Colin McDonald (18)
Marc Rechlicz (31) - Geoff Paukovich (20) - Riley Emmerson (27)

Chris Armstrong (3) - Johan Motin (5)
Cody Wild (37) - Matt Nickerson (6)
Jesse Dudas (4) - R.J. Anderson (24)

Andrew Perugini (35)
Bryan Pitton (1)

###