Oklahoma City Barons Game 2 Recap; Barons Fall Short

After a rather uninspired effort in Game 1, the Barons were ready to play in Game 2. Todd Nelson tinkered with the lineups by taking out Alex Plante, Milan Kytnar, and Tanner House and replacing them with Colten Teubert, Zack Stortini, and Hunter Tremblay.
The Barons came out hard in the 1st, getting some good chances on Hamilton goalie Drew MacIntyre. Early in the 1st, Kevin Montgomery would take a big hit from Andrew Conboy. He would head to the locker room and would not return for the rest of the game. The Barons would finally punch through as Colin McDonald would bring the puck in on the right wing side and pass it to a hard charging Brad Moran in the slot who would blast it by MacIntyre and make the score 1-0 in the Barons favor at the 17:18 mark. 36 seconds later would begin the turning point of the game however. Zack Stortini and Jimmy Bonneau would begin a shoving match that would end with Bonneau tackling Stortini after the whistle. Bonneau and Stortini would both be assessed roughing minors, but Stortini picked up an additional interference penalty. The Bulldogs came hard on the PP, but the Barons would hold on. 3 seconds after the PP would end however, a shot would bank in off of Richard Petiot's skate and tie the game up for the Bulldogs with 3 seconds left in the period. The teams would head to the locker room tied at 1 with the Bulldogs leading shots 13-12.
The 2nd period would start much the same way the 1st period ended. A really weak hooking call was assessed to Linus Omark 35 seconds into the period. The Bulldogs would capitalize with Nigel Dawes getting a pass all alone on the right side and blast the shot past Martin Gerber 28 seconds into the PP and make it a 2-1 Hamilton lead. The Barons would get a few good chances to tie it up, but the Bulldogs defense and MacIntyre would hold strong as the headed to the locker room.
The 3rd period was all Barons and Drew MacIntyre. The Barons had many chances, but couldn't convert on any of them. With 2 minutes left, the refs threw out the tight calling of the game up to that point as Colin McDonald would be pulled down in the neutral zone, but no call would come of it. Gerber would be pulled as the period ran down, but MacIntyre would hold strong and keep the score 2-1, stopping the 15 Barons shots that period while the Bulldogs only got off 2.
The Barons played well this game. Biggest thing working against them was the refereeing. Despite rolling only 5 D for the majority of the game, they played well, not making any huge mistakes like in Game 1. The series heads to Oklahoma City with the Barons down 2-0 in the series. The biggest question mark is the status of Kevin Montgomery and whether he'll be back healthy for Game 3. No complaints on the forward lines, I thought they all played pretty well, they were just unable to figure out the Hamilton defense and Drew MacIntyre.
Barons shots: 12-12-15-39 Barons PP: 0/3
Bulldogs shots: 13-8-2-23 Bulldogs PP: 1/6
Lines
Alexandre Giroux - Brad Moran - Colin McDonald
Linus Omark - Mark Arcobello - Teemu Hartikainen
Hunter Tremblay - Chris VandeVelde - Ben Ondrus
Greg Stewart - Ryan O'Marra - Zack Stortini
Bryan Helmer - Colten Teubert
Jeff Petry - Kevin Montgomery
Jake Taylor - Richard Petiot

-Written by Eric Rodgers-