Wahlgren’s Season High 48 Saves Spoiled by Blue Ridge (11/23)

DANVILLE, IL - The Dashers and Bobcats went at it for a second straight night at the David Palmer Arena. In a low scoring physical game, Nick Stuckless’ 3rd goal of the weekend spoiled a season high 48 saves from Oscar Wahlgren as the Dashers fell for the ninth straight time.

Period one felt very similar to yesterday. The Dashers came out physical but on their heels defensively. Without their assistant captain Nick Gullo, who began serving a 2 game suspension, the other lettermen made a point to throw bodies around. Justin Brausen and Lester Brown finished every check they could, and got into scuffles after whistles. The rest of the team followed suit and things began to get chippy but wouldn’t boil over in the frame. The Bobcats once again controlled the zone and peppered Oscar Wahlgren, who made the start for Tesoreiro’s group. He stopped all 17 shots he faced while his offense countered with a measly 4 on Virostek. A familiar face also returned to Danville in Darius Cole, who signed a 4-game PTO in light of Gullo’s absence. Cole was a part of the 2017 championship Dashers’ team with Brausen and Tesoreiro, where he tallied 46 points across 55 games. He had a pair of great scoring opportunities in period 1, but still continued the search for the twine.

Period two provided more of the same, no goals and a lot of physical play. There was a scare from the home crowd when Ryback began to celebrate thinking he had a goal on a chance right around the net. After going to the monitors, the call on the ice was confirmed; no goal. A collective and audible exhale followed by a cheer could be heard from the Dasher Faithful. On the bench minor assessed to Blue Ridge, the Dashers couldn’t get anything going on special teams. Instead the boost would come when Thomas Murphy squared off with Denis Radchenko at center ice. With all eyes watching, Murphy won a rather lopsided bout and proceeded to fire up the home crowd on his way to the box. Radchenko would leave the game to receive care. The rest of the period featured end to end action, still without a goal on the scoresheet. The final frame would set the stage for someone to be a hero. 

Period 3 brought the offense. The Dashers had a brief powerplay to open the action, but as the penalty time expired, Daniel Martin found a prime scoring area to wrist the puck by Wahlgren and make it 1-0 Cats. Playing from behind was nothing new for the home team. The opportunity arose when Trey Fischer drew a kneeing penalty from Aaron Ryback just outside the crease. On the power play, Kim Miettinen found Fischer with space in front and Fischer wasted no time with a quick release to even the game at 1. As has been the theme for the Dashers this season, after tying the game they gave it back moments later when Nick Stuckless beat Wahlgren low for his 3rd goal of the weekend. Letting some frustration out, Lester Brown boarded Dimitri Selyutin in the corner and received a 5 minute major. The Dashers killed it off but couldn’t parlay the effort into offense. With around 10 seconds remaining and the goalie pulled, the Dashers had a flurry of chances in the slot but couldn’t cash in. The final horn rang with the Bobcats edging out the Dashers 2-1. Many words were exchanged between the sides after the game, and the Bobcats were escorted off by the refs to diffuse the situation. 

The final shot totals read 50-20 in favor of the visitors. The Dashers fall to 1-10-1 with 6 games remaining on their homestand. They will host the Motor City Rockers for a pair of games next Friday and Saturday at 7:05 CST. The Bobcats improve to 6-4-2 and will host the Hudson Valley Venom Next weekend on Friday and Saturday at 8:30 CST.