Saturday, May 2, 2009

Fargo keeps on rolling

Press Release

The Fargo Force captured Game One of the Clark Cup Finals with a 2-1 victory over the Indiana Ice. The matchup of the league's top playoff goaltenders lived up to the hype and the winning goal came from an unlikely source to complete a thrilling opening game of the series.

After a scoreless first period highlighted by the solid play of both goaltenders, the Indiana Ice struck first with a power play goal by Loren Barron at 7:19 of the second period. Barron buried a cross-ice pass from Max Cook for his second goal of the playoffs.

Indiana continued their aggressive attack and tallied 19 shots in the second period, but Mike Lee, the leading goaltender in the playoffs finished the game with 33 saves and improved on his league-best 1.81 GAA.

Fargo battled back in the third period when Eamonn McDermott crashed the net and slipped the puck past Indiana goaltender Brett Bennett to even the game at 9:31 of the third.

The game appeared to be headed to overtime, but changed in a flash when Steve Spinell picked up a loose puck, skated across the middle and snuck a shot inside the post to give Fargo the lead with just 38 seconds remaining in the period. The defenseman who had just two goals during the regular season scored his first of the playoffs.

The Force were able to hold off Indiana in the final seconds and skated away with an important road victory in the first game of the best-of-five final series.

Fargo remains undefeated in the playoffs (7-0) winning all five of their road games. The puck drops on the second game of the series in less than 24 hours from the Pepsi Coliseum in Indianapolis.

The USHL is celebrating its 30th season of junior hockey in 2008-09. With nearly 170 players already committed to NCAA Division I schools and 16 NHL Draft picks that in the league this season, the USHL is the nation's foremost producer of junior hockey talent. For more information, visit us on the web at www.ushl.com.



(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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