Hockey win streak comes to an end

The FRA/USN hockey team played Independence-Summit in a showdown for 2nd place in the GNASH Blue Division on Friday night. The Panthers were without some of their top players, so this one looked to be a difficult night for the young team. The last time these two teams met, the game was a blowout as the Panthers fell behind early and never challenged. Tonight, they came out and got strong goaltending from senior co-captain Jon Rydburg who stopped numerous point blank attempts and got on the board first when junior co-captain Alex Melin made no mistake with nifty back-hand goal to put the Panthers up 1-0 as senior assistant captain Ben Brinton and junior Nic Chalos picked up assists on the play. The Panthers had two more chances later in period as Melin and 8th grader Will Frankenfield just missed extending the lead. Indy-Summit snipers continued to pepper Rydburg before finally getting one past him with :30 left to tie the score at one at the end of the first period.
 
 
In the second period, Indy/Summitt quickly overwhelmed the Panthers and put on offensive show, scoring two quick goals and keeping play in the Panther’s end of the rink. Rydburg got little support as the short-handed Panther's tired and fell behind 3-1. When the buzzer finally went off in the second period, Indy/Summitt outshot FRA/USN 26-1 in the period and had a commanding 4-1 lead. At this point, it would have been very easy for the team to throw in the towel, but this time the young FRA/USN team dug deep and with a determination that defied expectations and clawed back. First, it was junior Taylor Maitland who went to the net, which is quickly becoming his "office", and banged home a loose puck to close the gap to 4-2 with the assist going to freshman Jake Jones. After Rydburg stoned a couple of more great Indy chances, junior assistant captain Sterling Schwartz got free on a break-away and nearly pulled them to one before being stopped. The Panthers kept plugging away and late in the period, pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. This time, Schwartz made no mistake as put the puck in the net on an assist from junior Andrew Looney to make the score 4-3 with just over a minute left to play. The Panthers continued to press and were able to get the puck deep and pull their goalie again, but just missed getting the equalizer before time expired and their unbeaten streak came to an end, 4-3.
 
For the game, the Panthers were outplayed and outshot 54-21, but the coach was able to see a lot of good in the courage his team displayed. "Tonight was really 3 games in one" said Coach Melin. "We played a good 1st, a terrible 2nd, and a very good 3rd period against a team that can really skate-and did it without five of our players. Our coaches are very hard at times on our players, but the way they fought back tonight and gave themselves chances to win shows how far we've come as a team this year. Jon (Rydburg) was very strong, stopping 50 of 54 shots to keep us in the game. Despite the total shots, our defense (Brinton, Looney, Jones and Thomas) actually played better in front of him than they did on Wednesday when we gave up half the shots. When our defense can keep them to the outside and clear rebounds, we have a chance to win regardless how many shots we give up. As the game went on, we started to battle in front and put bodies on their guys and stand up for each other. Taylor is hard to move from in front of the other teams net and is incredibly valuable while Sterling and Alex played enormous minutes and started doing more down low in our zone to help. And just as important, while our wings (Korpman, Chalos, Conley, Frankenfield and Green) may not play the most graceful style of hockey, they did more tonight because they had to - and I hope are realizing how much we need them to so we can be successful."
 
For the season, FRA/USN fell to 8-9-2 (7-4-1 in division play) and 3rd place with two games to play. Based on the results of some of the other games, FRA/USN can clinch third place with a tie in one of their final two games next week. Considering the slow start the team had, this is a rewardingly strong finish. They'll be back on the ice next Wednesday, hopefully with a full roster, against Hume-Fogg/Page at 6:40pm at A-Game knowing their playoff fate is in their hands.
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