Linus Lundin made his professional debut tonight for the St. Charles Chill – Photo/Mick Lite
The St. Charles Chill were looking to rebound from last weekend sweep by the Arizona Sundogs as they took on the Brampton Beast in St. Charles tonight.
The first period started with some good end-to-end action for both teams with not a lot of play in the neutral zone. Both teams were bring it physically and were absolutely obliterating players. Kevin Noble threw a rather dirty hit along the boards and then Anthony Perdicaro was jumped by Beast defensemen Dan Milan. It was more a hugging fest as minimal punches were thrown, maybe five/six a piece. However, Perdicaro was vocally upset and was having words with Jake Brenk, the evening’s referee. Perdicaro received a 10 minute misconduct as well as a game misconduct for “abuse of the official.” Perdicaro was visibly frustrated as he was escorted off the ice.
By the end of the first period, both teams registered a handful of good scoring chances. The story in the first was Beast goalie Kristofer Westblom and Chill goalie, Linus Lundin. Lundin, making his professional debut, looked to be in position for every shot, while Westblom looked to be fighting the puck most of the period. The first period ended in a scoreless tie.
The second period started out in the favor of the Beast. Getting a handful of shots on goal and really picking up the momentum. An early penalty by Tyler Barr gave Brampton the opportunity to jump ahead and they did just that. Andrew Fournier jumped on a rebound shot and lifted the puck over the glove of Lundin. Rob Collins and Jamie VanderVeeken registered assists on the goal. The Chill upped the pressure after the goal, registering three straight shots and really picking up momentum. Westblom was forced to make a handful of good stops and he did just that.
The rest of the second was a lot of back and forth action. The Chill continued to rack of scoring chances, and Westblom continued kicking out rebounds. However, the Beast defense got countless sticks on the puck and cleared the puck every time. Linus Lundin made a handful of great saves, including a sliding pad stop that had Lundin stretched out from post-to-post to keep it a one goal game. The second period ended with the Beast taking a 1-0 lead into intermission. The Beast lead the Chill in the shot department, 21-to-16.
The Chill upped the intensity in the third period, and had many scoring chances. Phil Bushbacher’s two breakaway chances, as well as a couple of powerplay’s for the Chill gave them ample opportunity to get back into the game. However, a non-call on Brampton was the biggest factor in the third period. Steven Anthony was picked up and tackled by Tyler Matheson in the corner and the Jake Brenk deemed it to be a legal play. The Chill’s defense broke down and Josh McQuade took a breakaway pass from Matt Caruana and gave the Beast a two goal lead by firing a shot five-hole on Linus Lundin.
After failing to convert on another powerplay with six-minute remaining, the Chill peppered the Westblom and it looked like they made the game interesting after Jordan Fox looked to shove the puck past Westblom. However the goal was waved off immediately. Martin Hlinka didn’t care as he ended up bringing the game within a goal with just over a minute to go. The Chill would pull their goalie and come within just inches of a goal but would eventually lose by a score of 2-1.
Jamie Rivers was very honest about tonight’s loss regarding the team, and the officials. “It’s frustrating still, we’ve come a long way in a very short period of time here. We still have brand faces coming into the line up with Danny Weiss and Steven Anthony. If we’ve had these guys the last few weeks, it sure would have been nice. We had Linus Lundin step in tonight and was fantastic. I’m really excited to see what he can do for the full season here. Yet it’s the same old thing, we still haven’t put together a full 60 minutes of hockey.”
Lundin was very good tonight in net, stopping 25 of 27 shots he faced. He really didn’t have much chance on either goal, even though he’d like to have the second goal back. It was on a breakaway and goalies always want to make that big stop on the breakaway.
Rivers wasn’t to happy with the officiating in this game either, between a ridiculous 5-on-3 which was handed to Brampton and the unexplainable “abuse of officials” game misconduct that was given to Perdicaro, Rivers wasn’t afraid to let his opinion out. “We got a 5-on-3, which was a brutal call. I don’t even know how to explain it. We have the ref telling me he saw it and I know he didn’t because he was looking at me and talking to me. I didn’t even ask (about the Perdicaro game misconduct). It’s irrelevant at that point, as he’s already made the call. He’s already messed it up, so whats the point?”
The Chill will practice at the Hardee’s Iceplex tomorrow before headed to Kansas City to take on the Missouri Mavericks in a set of back-to-back games this Friday and Saturday.
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