Gary Moskalyk Recaps the second set of games of the Bill Salonen Cup Finals!
 | AT DRYDEN GM ICE DOGS |  |
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| There'll be a game six. Payton Hu scored unassisted at 10:40 of overtime as the Ice Dogs staved off elimination with a 4-3 win over Kam River before 768 fans at Dryden Memorial Arena. Kam River opened up a three-goal lead after one. Daxton Lang got his third playoff goal at the four-minute mark, depositing an Adam Kukko rebound past Noah Davis to draw first blood. Former Ice Dog Easton Debray drew the secondary assist. Zach Baumann got his first of two at 12:40. Edwin Liang worked the puck loose to Baumann for the 2-0 lead. Baumann made it 3-0 when he tucked in his fifth playoff goal with a rebound backhander off a Carter Poddubny shot. Kam River held a dominant 24-12 shot advantage through 20 minutes. The Ice Dogs gained momentum in the second frame. Ashton Sadauskas' pad save robbed Hu blind at 4:20 of the second period, perhaps serving notice of the shifting tide. Davis made a great save on Nico Simeoni after a funky bounce left Simeoni alone in front of the Dryden net. A pair of Ice Dog goals, both involving great passing plays, changed the complexion of the game. Max Roby sniped his fifth of post season, going high glove side on Sadauskas after passes from Hu and Elias Eisenbarth set him up at 11:24. Evan Mayer polished off a tic-tac-toe with Rylan Oatman and Jordan Wales to tighten the score to 3-2 at 14:38. Emmanuel Nkombou scored the apparent game tyer late in the second. Instead, Nkombou was tagged with a five-minute major for a hit moments before that crumpled a Walleye player in the corner. A meeting of the four officials overturned the goal and sent Nkombou to the showers. Despite the major, Dryden outshot the Walleye 20-11 in the middle frame. Dryden killed off first 3:06 of the Nkombou's infraction to end the second. Always dangerous on the penalty kill, Dryden scored a shorthanded goal to open the third. McLaren Paulsen's feed to Eisenbarth on a 2-on-1 tied the game at three-all at 1:14. Both goalies made great saves to keep the game tied. Davis stopped Jett Mintenko and Daxton Lang in succession at the three-minute mark, and Sadauskas thwarted an Ice Dog one-timer at 5:36. Oatman rang one off the post for Dryden at seven minutes. Dryden had 16-10 shot advantage in the third. Callum Halls had Kam River's best chance seven minutes into overtime. Sadauskas stymied Roby from the slot. Hu scored on a Kam River giveaway, slapping the disc past Sadauskas glove side to win the game. Noah Davis' dad, fresh (or perhaps not so much) from a long drive from Calgary, was on hand to see his son make 47 saves to garner his second playoff win in the Dryden net. Sadauskas also stopped 47 shots in the loss. Dryden took 13 of 19 penalty minutes meted out by referees Travis Batters and Mike English. Kam River was 0-4 with the man advantage while Dryden was 0-2. A busload of Walleye fans were on hand in Dryden for game five. They’ll have an opportunity to potentially see the Walleye clinch the Bill Salonen Cup at Norwest Arena on Tuesday in game six. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. |
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