The end result may have been the same, but the way they got there could not have been more different than the night before.

One night after a disappointing effort in which they were thoroughly outplayed, the Texas Tornado rebounded with a very spirited outing, but ran into a red-hot goaltender as they fell to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs 2-1 Saturday night at the DejaBlue Arena in the Frisco Dr Pepper StarCenter.

Despite firing a season-high 46 shots on Fairbanks netminder Cody Reichard, the Tornado were able to get just one past him and lost their second straight game after winning five of their previous six. After being blanked 5-0 Friday night, the Tornado completed the two-game set with just one goal on a total of 71 shots.

“He’s the best in the league, he gives up two a night and I thought that basically, we really dug ourselves a hole,” Texas coach Dwight Mullins said of Reichard, who leads the NAHL in goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts. “I don’t know if we were to blame fully for the penalty parade in the second period, we managed to really dodge a big bullet. We competed hard, we just couldn’t get the equalizer.”

Indeed, both Fairbanks goals came on power plays in the second period, one on a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage, all on questionable calls by referee Curtis Marouelli.

Still, the Tornado’s performance, including a dominating third period in which they outshot the Ice Dogs 21-2, was extremely encouraging, even though they could not eke out the W. The same could not have been said the previous night.

“Last night, I was very disappointed in our hockey club, I didn’t think that we really competed the way that we needed to,” Mullins admitted. “We’re still a desperate hockey team trying to find our way to the playoffs and I thought tonight was one of those games, where, hey, that’s sports. I was really proud of the way we competed, I thought we had a lot of very good hockey players, including our goaltending as well, and sometimes, you end up on the short end of those things.”

The defeat left them with a 12-25-3 record, still just five points behind Alaska for the fourth and final playoff spot in the South Division, receiving some help from Wichita Falls, who defeated the Avalanche 6-3 earlier in the evening. With Alaska arriving for three games in Frisco next weekend, the Tornado are within striking distance and could conceivably find themselves in fourth place by the time it’s over.

In a sometimes crazy but thoroughly entertaining game that saw three different goals disallowed, multiple lengthy 5-on-3 power plays, and the debut of a new, highly-touted Tornado player, Sam Goodwin was the only Texas skater to put a puck past Reichard. Texas goaltender Tommy Callaghan, meanwhile, rebounded with a solid performance of his own, making 29 saves.

“We challenged him and he’s a character kid and he’s going to find his way,” Mullins said of Callaghan, who allowed five goals on 23 shots before being pulled early in the third period Friday night. “I thought tonight was a great duel between the two. I thought, obviously, there was a clear difference between the two last night. You can’t fault our guys for the effort tonight, and if we continue to get that, we’ll end up on the right side of that things.”

Meanwhile, new forward Sergei Korostin, who was selected in the third round (64th overall) by the Dallas Stars in the 2007 NHL Draft, made his NAHL debut after arriving from Russia less than 18 hours earlier. While it understandably took Korostin awhile to get his legs underneath him, the dynamic winger, who speaks little English, came on in the third period and ended up leading the Tornado with six shots on goal.

“I’ve been very impressed with the type of kid that he is,” Mullins said. “I asked him if he’d be interested in playing and he made no hesitation, and this is a boy that traveled almost 23 hours yesterday and got home at 3:00 in the morning this morning. He will start to separate himself from this group and we’re very excited to have that kind of player here. It’s a huge leap of faith from the Dallas Stars organization to have him here and we respect that and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that we do our job.”

Entering the middle period with a 1-0 lead, the Tornado were immediately on the defensive as they were whistled for four penalties in the first five minutes of the second (and six in a row overall in the period), the first a hooking call on Adam Mitchell.

That led to the tying goal for Fairbanks, as Nick Guran scored his first NAHL goal after joining the Ice Dogs for his first game the previous night. Brock Shelgren launched a wrist shot from inside the blue line that was deftly deflected by Guran just off to the right side of the crease, ramping the puck up and over Callaghan at 2:14.

The penalties kept coming and at 5:23, a high-sticking infraction on Augie Hoffman put the Ice Dogs on a 5-on-3 for 1:23. Then the Tornado were called for too many men on the ice 25 seconds later and remained down two men for significantly longer.

Their penalty killing unit handled the adversity as good as could be expected and Callaghan made several impressive saves, particularly on Shelgren’s bomb of a slap shot from the blue line at 6:40, but eventually the Ice Dogs broke through.

Still skating 5-on-3, Fairbanks got what ultimately was the game-winning goal at 6:56. Guran fed a quick cross-ice pass from the right face-off circle to Shelgren in the left circle, and Shelgren’s one-timer whizzed through a screen in front (set by former Tornado Julian Mikola) past Callaghan. It was Shelgren’s third goal of the season.

The Ice Dogs thought they’d picked up another one a minute and half later while still on the power play, but it was disallowed. Callaghan saved PJ Kavaya’s wrist shot from inside the blue line, but John Lennartson swatted at the rebound in front and it trickled under Callaghan, who was flat on his back. The whistle blew in the split second the puck was under Callaghan, even though it continued to slide under him and over the goal line, but because of the quick whistle, the goal was disallowed.

Then with 1:57 left in the period, the Tornado had a similar play wipe out a goal of their own at the other end. After Ryan Fuller leveled a Fairbanks defender behind the net to steal the puck, he fed Mike Cifelli in the left circle. Reichard stopped Cifelli’s wrist shot, but Fuller, who’d swung out front, poked at the rebound and knocked it into the net, but again, referee Marourelli had already blown the play dead even though the puck was still loose. That nullified the apparent goal and the score remained 2-1.

“I just think that tonight, the officiating was very incompetent for the level of play and I have no problem saying that,” Mullins said. “I think that some of the things, we deserved a little better fate. I think there were a couple of questionable things both ways from that standpoint.”

The Tornado generated another good scoring opportunity with 56 seconds left in the second, but Reichard denied Tyler Bowman’s slap shot from just inside the blue line through a screen. Bowman ended the night with five shots on goal.

Heading into the third down by a goal, the Tornado ratcheted up the offensive pressure and were relentless in their fore-checking - clearly, their best period of the two-game series. Their first quality chance came about 4:30 in, as captain Sean Roadhouse launched a tricky wrist shot from the left circle, but Reichard made a nice pad save.

Callaghan kept his team in the game as he made two outstanding saves (his only ones of the period) six minutes into the third. First he stopped Eric Kraft’s booming slap shot from the left circle, although he gave up a big rebound, which ended up in the right circle, where Ryan Santanna blasted a one-timer that Callaghan made a stellar diving save on.

Then the Tornado really turned on the pressure, with several more close calls in the final nine minutes. Reichard made a big pad save on Ben Van Lare’s slap shot from the top of the left circle with 8:25 to go, then managed to smother Korostin’s rebound attempt from in front with Texas on a power play with 7:51 left.

Reichard also made a nice save on Gustav Bengtson’s wrist shot from a sharp angle on the right side with 3:20 remaining, and then an even better save after Bengtson picked up his own rebound, curled around the net to the left side and fired a backhander that Reichard somehow managed to keep out of the net.

With 1:57 on the clock, Reichard stopped Bowman’s long wrist shot through a screen, and after the Tornado pulled Callaghan for an extra attacker with 1:47 to go, made several more saves as Texas dominated the last few minutes but were never able to solve Reichard again.

Texas came out playing a much more inspired first period than they did the night before, while also holding the speedy and offensively-explosive Ice Dogs under wraps defensively, for the most part.

They did get themselves into some trouble after Jason Zawacki was whistled for a phantom hooking penalty with 9:16 left in the first period, giving the Ice Dogs their first 5-on-3 advantage of the night, this one for a full 1:49. The best opportunity that Fairbanks had during that stretch was a point-blank wrist shot from Aaron Stonacek, who scored two goals and an assist the night before, that Callaghan made a nice glove save on with 8:29 left in the first.

The Tornado had a prime opportunity while on a power play of their own with 3:52 to go, as Roadhouse fed Goodwin for a breakaway. As Goodwin blazed into the slot, he fired a fierce wrist shot that Reichard made a nice shoulder save on. Fairbanks’ Derek Bradish was called for slashing on the play, so the Tornado ended up with a 5-on-3 of their own for 45 seconds.

Their best chance on that advantage came when Korostin blasted a slap shot from just inside the blue line about 10 seconds into the opportunity, but Reichard snagged it with his glove.

The Tornado finally broke through for their only goal of the weekend while still on the power play, on Goodwin’s ninth of the season at 17:21. Van Lare, in front of the net, deflected Matt Tennyson’s shot from the blue line, but Reichard made the save. Goodwin retrieved the rebound and then made a nifty move to his backhand before roofing it over Reichard for the 1-0 lead.

Fairbanks seemed to even the score with 1:41 left in the first period, but the apparent goal was waved off. After Santanna wristed a sharp-angle shot from the right corner, Callaghan made the save, but the rebound squirted free and Kraft, right in front, chopped the puck over Callaghan’s pad. The puck appeared to enter the net briefly before it was quickly swept out by Bowman, but the goal judge never flashed the red light and referee Marouelli never signaled it a goal.

Replays clearly showed the puck going over the goal line by about three inches before it was cleared out, but since the NAHL does not have instant replay video review, the original ruling of no-goal could not be overturned, so the Tornado took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

So despite missing an opportunity to gain more ground on Alaska in the standings, the Tornado will turn their focus to their biggest series of the season so far, beginning next Thursday at 7:30 pm at the DejaBlue Arena (listen to Tommy Daniels and myself calling the action on b2 networks). Still five points back, there is no question the club realizes the importance of these upcoming contests.

“You’re not going to get any closer to the playoff atmosphere than we have coming up,” Mullins said. “We’re five points back and there are six possible points available for us in our home barn. I think that we’ve postured ourselves to give ourselves a chance.”


THREE STARS

3. Sam Goodwin, Texas (one goal, three shots)
2. Nick Guran, Fairbanks (one goal, one assist)
1. Cody Reichard, Fairbanks (45 saves)

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