Outlaws Remain Undefeated With Win Over Shock

In their third game of the season, the Outlaws turned on the offense against the Shock Monday night.  After being outshot in the first period 16-6, and surviving with a 1-1 score, the Outlaws turned the tables, outshooting and outscoring the Shock in both the second and third periods to emerge with a 5-2 victory.

The Shock were overmatched in the B2 division last year, and dropped down to B3 for this season.  In the process, they lost hard-working Jeff Graves, but picked up the talented Greg Gutzler. 

In this game, the Outlaws benefited from lax penalty-calling by the officials, who whistled only one penalty in the entire game, a holding call against John Depeneloza on the second shift of the game.  Aside from that, the Outlaws were able to help their goalie Craig Schellenbach a bit by taking down the Shock puck-carriers before they could pepper shot after shot on net.  Apart from Schellenbach’s play, the star of the game was new Outlaw Joe Wallington, who recorded a hat trick with a goal in each period. 

As usual, the game started slowly for the Outlaws, with the Shock keeping the Outlaws hemmed up in their own end for at least four consecutive shifts.  Schellenbach kept the Shock off the scoreboard by stopping everything thrown his way, until he suggested that his teammates take the puck to the other end of the rink for a while.  So, midway through the first, Wallington gave the Outlaws a lead with an assist from Sean McCloskey.  That lead lasted just 2 minutes, as Gutzler scored for the Shock with an assist from Ed Bellany.

In the second and third periods, the Outlaws were able to get goals from their transition play, breaking up Shock rushes at mid-ice, and returning with rushes of their own.  Wallington, Jack Bailey, and Wallington again scored goals that were credited as unassisted, as they were all the result of an Outlaw offensive rush, or intercepting an attempted Shock clearing pass.  The Outlaws had built a 4-1 lead shortly after the third period began, but Gutzler scored again to narrow the gap, this time with as assist from Dean Hendrickson.

For the remainder of the game, the Outlaws were able to protect the lead by protecting the net, as the Shock only managed 5 shots in the third period.  After they pulled their goalie, Outlaw defenseman Larry Baner collided with Gutzler over a puck inside the Outlaw zone.  Baner may have gotten the worst of the collision, but was able to jar the puck free to Ryan Kromann, who stickhandled the puck into the empty Shock net to cap off the game.  Final score: Outlaws 5, Shock 2.

The next game for the Outlaws will be one week later, Monday, November 10th, at 9:45 at the Kirkwood rink.  The opponent with be the Eagles, whom the Outlaws have never faced, as they rise from the B4 division.  It will be a meeting of the only two remaining teams in the B3 division who have gotten a point in each game so far this season.  The Eagles have only played two games, suffering a 1-0 overtime loss to the Shock, and hammering the IceDogs, 9-3.