NAHL Robertson Cup Tournament Day Two
By Kirk Estes
Day two of the NAHL Robertson Cup Tournament saw another dramatic finish to the day. As with the night before, the Amarillo Bulls went to overtime to determine the day’s final game.
Game One
The Wenatchee Wild made up for their limited offensive output in the game one loss to Bismarck with a 5-2 win against the Jamestown Ironmen.
David Dudich – Texas Tornado Booster Club: Wenatchee’s Chris Kerr had two goals in the Wild’s 5-2 defeat of the Jamestown Ironmen
Chris Kerr (Max McHugh) got things started for Wenatchee at 11:49 of the opening period when a hard carom off the end board went right onto his tape. At 13:38 Huba Sekesi was hit with a cross checking minor putting the Wild on the man advantage, it took Joe Sullivan (McHugh) just 24 seconds to rip the puck over Joe Ballmer’s glove hand to score the power play goal.
In the second the Wild continued to pad their lead, at the 1:07 mark Jacob Barber scored an unassisted goal that was reminiscent of Kerr’s goal in the first. Kerr (Barber, Dylan Abood) added his second of the game off a give and go at 8:48 on the power play. Daniel Cesarz (Tyler Dunagan) was finally able to get the Ironmen on the board at 9:13 as he raced up the ice, beat the defender one on one and put the puck behind Robert Nichols.
Jamestown’s Victor Johansson had an unassisted tow on one goal at the 8:51 mark of the third to make things interesting, but Wenatchee’s defense clamped down the rest of the way. With just 1:40 left to play Jono Davis (McHugh) iced the game away with an empty netter to eliminate any though the Ironmen had of a comeback.
Nichols picked up the win in net for Wenatchee with 14 saves on 16 shots faced. Ballmer who was much more active facing 32 shots and making 27 saves took the loss.
All three penalties in the game went against the Ironmen resulting in two Wenatchee power play goals. The Wild doubled up Jamestown in the shots on goal ledger outshooting the Ironmen 32-16.
Game Two
As with their first game on Friday night the Amarillo Bulls were pushed to overtime by the Bismarck Bobcatsbefore getting the win. This time however they were assisted by the man with the orange arm band in the win.
NAHL.com: For the second night in a row, Paul Berrafato and the Amarillo Bulls do just enough to get by Bismarck 2-1 in overtime.
Following a scoreless first period, Bismarck’s Nate Repensky was whistled for a tripping minor at 2:53 into the second. Gage Christianson (Brady Ferguson, TJ Sherman) cashed in at 3:39 putting the puck five hole on a screened Aaron Nelson.
Stanislav Dzakhov (Matt Anders) who had the game winner the night before, bumped the puck loose at his own blue line to Anders in the neutral zone. Anders sent it right back to Dzakhov and he drove the near post then put it five hole on Paul Berrafato. With time winding down in regulation, there was a puck battle in the near corner of the Bismarck defensive zone. The Bull’s TJ Sarcona threw a wicked left elbow that caught a Bobcat player flush on the chin and dropped him to the ice. Referee Lucas Martin was standing only 10 feet away and never raised his hand. The blown no-call was bad enough that even multiple Bull’s fans commented that they could not believe Sarcona was not sent to the box.
In the overtime period Martin once again inserted himself into the game with two questionable calls going against Bismarck. The second of the two led to the Ryan Cole (John Rey, Christianson) overtime winner as the puck was sent out front from the far corner and redirected past Aaron Nelson.
Bismarck outshot Amarillo 29-23 on the evening, but were done in by the Bulls power play as Amarillo was 2-7 with the mad advantage while the Bobcats were 0-4.
Sunday will see the 2-0 Amarillo Bulls face the 1-1 Wenatchee Wild at 4:30 followed by the 1-1 Bismarck Bobcats and 0-2 Jamestown Ironmen at 7:30. A win by Amarillo ensures the Bulls would play in the National Championship Game. Should the Wild defeat the Bulls and Bismarck get past Jamestown, then the Bobcats, Wild and Bulls would all be 2-1 and they would go to the goal differential tie breaker.