DASHERS SUFFER FIRST DEFEAT ON THE ROAD IN WATERTOWN (10/18)

Watertown, NY - The Dashers Hockey Club opened up their season with a tough loss at the hands of the Watertown Wolves. Parker Rutherford’s 45 save effort would not be enough as a late 3rd period tally from Dylan Infantino proved to be too much. An empty netter provided the dagger in a 4-2 defeat to kick off a new era of professional hockey in Illinois. 

After a sloppy first ten minutes, a faster and more physical brand of hockey was adopted. Niko Reimann dropped the gloves with Carter Thornton for the first fight in the new Dasher Era. Less than 90 seconds later, Nikolai Salov batted home a rebound to put the Dashers up early 1-0. On the ensuing faceoff, Wolves enforcer Justin Schmit squared off with Bowie Slarks to get the Watertown crowd back in the game.

Period 2 began with a Kyle Heitzner breakaway goal off a bad turnover in the Dasher end to even things at 1. The deadlock would not last long as Dasher captain Justin Brausen fired one past the stick side of Anton Borodkin on the powerplay to make it 2-1. Just over 3 minutes later another costly Dasher turnover would make way in the slot for a tip in goal by Dylan Infantino to even the game once again. 

With 40 minutes gone by, it was anybody’s contest. 15 minutes bled off the clock with both teams exchanging grade A chances. The Dashers had some tough puck luck with Yegor Kabatayev ringing one off the far post from below the circle and Brandon Stojcevski just missing a golden opportunity with Borodkin out of position. With 4:28 remaining, Dylan Infantino gave the Wolves their first lead of the game with a close-quarters snipe over the shoulder of Rutherford. The Dashers had some life thanks to a Dustin Perillat delay of game penalty with 4 minutes to go, but couldn’t capitalize. The dagger was delivered by Ludlow Harris Jr. to solidify a 4-2 victory for Watertown.

The Dashers fall to 0-1 while the Wolves improve to 2-1. The two teams will meet again tomorrow night, October 19th at 7:30 EST.