The result was the same, but the process of getting there was much different.

After being thoroughly outplayed Friday in a 6-0 loss, the Texas Tornado fought much harder Saturday night and had the territorial advantage for portions of the contest, but ultimately were unable to capitalize on their offensive opportunities and were defeated 3-0 by the Topeka Roadrunners at the Frisco Dr Pepper StarCenter’s DejaBlue Arena.

It was the second straight shutout suffered by Texas, as they dropped both ends of a two-game set to Topeka by a combined score of 9-0. The loss prevented the Tornado from officially clinching the fourth and final playoff spot in the South Division, but with fifth-place Alaska nine points back and needing to win all five of their remaining games, that appears to be a mere formality at this point.

The key for the Tornado was the fact that they came out with a much better overall effort than the night before, and for the most part, matched the Roadrunners stride for stride; they just weren’t able to capitalize on their offensive chances. In stopping all 19 Texas shots, Topeka netminder Bryce Merriam posted his second straight shut out (and third of the season), turning aside 35 total shots over 120 scoreless minutes of hockey.

“I think that throughout both nights, we just haven’t been able to generate or capitalize on any offensive opportunities like we have in the past,” Tornado coach Dwight Mullins said. “I thought our team game and our effort level was markedly better tonight than last night. I was extremely embarrassed in our effort last night and it showed on the scoreboard as well, but I thought tonight we competed very well. They got some timely goals and we just could not get anything going in the other end.”

For Texas, goaltender Tommy Callaghan, who was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots in less than 21 minutes Friday, was back in net and delivered an excellent bounce-back performance, making 30 saves and giving the Tornado a chance.

“He came in and he wanted to play tonight,” said assistant coach Craig Ludwig, the former Dallas Stars defenseman. “I think that’s what we’re looking for from him, he wanted to be able to prove that he could step up and be that guy.”

“Tommy always responds to adversity,” Mullins added. “I was really disappointed in his week of practice. I think that (pulling him) last night was kind of a knee-jerk reaction to the bad goal to start the second period, but I think it really was a reflection of how he practiced all week. He’s got to understand that we’re relying on him to carry this team and he has a responsibility to work really hard and he does respond.

“I thought tonight he had a great effort. In the first period, he made some unbelievable saves on the penalty kill to keep it 0-0. I think he’d probably like to have the third goal back, but outside of that, the game’s a game and we couldn’t find a way to really capitalize on what we had.”

Their undoing was their inability to stay out of the penalty box, spending 50 minutes in the sin bin and providing Topeka with no less than 14 power plays, including a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes, although the Roadrunners scored just once. Of course, the optimist would point out the outstanding job put in by the penalty killing unit and the homer would complain that the officiating left a lot to be desired on some of the calls. All would be right.

“I just think there’s two sides to every story,” Mullins said of all the time spent in the box. “It’s a little bit frustrating sometimes to be on the receiving end of that stuff. I just really felt like we can’t get anything generated offensively to keep our team moving forward. We just kind of sit at a lull, we work hard, but we’re just not making that extra push to get it done. Again, marked improvement from last night. The bottom line is, though, that we dropped two games that we needed to find a way to win.”

The Tornado had seven power plays themselves, but obviously, were unable to capitalize on any, even allowing Topeka to generate some scoring chances themselves. Their lack of success on the man advantage leaves them a mind-boggling 1-for-57 over the nine games of their season series with the Roadrunners (in which they are now 3-6-0).

“There’s no way that they should outchance us on our own power play,” Ludwig said. “We’ve got to get that straightened out, and that’s been a point for us all year. If we can start chipping in 1-2 goals on our power play, then we’ve got a better opportunity to win the hockey game. Our scoring has got to come from everybody, it’s a team effort.”

Going into the second period scoreless, the Tornado appeared to have the situation exactly as they wanted it and heading towards a positive outcome, but somewhere along the line, things began to unravel on them.

Callaghan made a big stop on Aaron Gens 1:15 in, getting a pad on his point-blank backhander in front.

Their unfortunate penchant for ending up in the penalty box came back to bite them, though, as Topeka cashed in on their fourth power play of the night to break the scoreless tie. Eriah Hayes collected his 25th goal of the season - tied for eighth in the NAHL - at 7:22, slamming a one-timer from the slot, off a nice backhand pass out fo the right corner from Bryon Paulazzo, through Callaghan’s pads to make it 1-0.

Sergei Korostin had an opportunity to even it up two and a half minutes later, intercepting a Topeka clearing attempt inside the Roadrunner blue line and firing quick wrist shot from the slot that Merriam turned aside.

With 8:53 left in the period, the Tornado sped into the Topeka zone on a 2-on-1, but Gustav Bengtson’s pass across to Kruse was just a bit too far ahead of him and Merriam poked it away.

The Roadrunners then immediately counter-attacked down the other end, resulting in Randy Swank’s third goal of the season at 11:13. Callaghan saved Martin Sundstedt’s wrist shot from the slot, but Colin Smith picked up the loose rebound, and with Callaghan down in the crease, curled around behind the net and fed a pass out to the high slot, where Swank fired a snap shot past a diving Callaghan for the 2-0 lead.

The back-breaker for the Tornado came just 3:51 later, as Matt Hartmann collected his second goal in as many nights, and 19th of the season, at 15:04 of the second. Hartmann took an innocent-looking wrist shot from a sharp angle low in the left face-off circle that somehow found its way through Callaghan’s pads and in.

“I thought the third goal was really the one that took the air out of our tires,” Mullins said.

The rash of penalties began soon after that, with both Ryan Fuller and John Bullis picking up 10-minute misconducts, and when Jason Zawacki was whistled for slashing with 1:48 to go in the second, Topeka had a two-minute 5-on-3.

Callaghan’s biggest save on that advantage came when he stopped Paulazzo’s wrist shot from the right circle with his facemask with 30 seconds left in the period.

The first half of the third period featured some solid offensive opportunities from the Tornado, but again, they were unable to put them away. About 3:30 in, Ben Van Lare fed a nice pass out of the right corner to a charging Andrew Blazek in the slot, but Merriam robbed him with an outstanding glove save.

Just 16 seconds later, Merriam barely stopped Sam Goodwin’s point-blank wrist shot, seemingly squeezing it against the post right on the goal line.

The second half of the third ended up devolving into more of a parade to the penalty box, as virtually all of the final 11 minutes featured at least one player on either team - sometimes both - feeling shame.

While shorthanded with 9:10 remaining, Goodwin had a glorious opportunity as his speed allowed him to catch up to a cleared puck in the Topeka zone, giving him a breakaway, but Merriam sprawled to make a huge pad save on Goodwin’s in-close wrist shot.

Callaghan made a nice shoulder stop on Reed Seckel’s fierce wrister from the left circle during a 2-on-1 break with 7:09 to go while the teams skated 4-on-4.

Then, with 4:36 to go, Merriam denied Goodwin’s wrist shot, but the puck squirted through his pads and sat in the crease just behind him as the whistle blew the play dead. Korostin reached over and tapped the loose puck into the net, resulting in the most incomprehensible penalty of the night, an unsportsmanlike conduct call.

The Tornado were outshot 13-4 in the first period, just like the night before, but numbers can be deceiving, because they played much better and even controlled the flow of the game for good portions of the period.

Callaghan showed he was back on his game with a stellar save 5:25 into the contest, robbing Hayes at the left post on a power play, after Paulazzo fed a nice cross-ice pass out of the right corner.

Texas had a prime opportunity a minute and a half later as Blazek and Van Lare raced into the zone on a 2-on-1 rush. Blazek slid a pass over to a wide open Van Lare, but the puck bounced over his stick.

Callaghan again came up big during a power play with 8:50 to go, denying Josh Kamrass’ quick wrist shot from the left circle and then seconds later, turning aside Hayes’ point-blank one-timer.

Corey Jendras fed Kamrass in front four minutes later, but another big stop by Callaghan nullified Kamrass’ deft deflection in front.

So while the Tornado appear to have locked up a playoff berth despite their performance this weekend, they would have liked to clinch it themselves, not with an Alaska loss. Either way, though, Mullins knows his team has earned their chance to move on to the post-season.

“We definitely had to fight and scrap to get to where we’re at, so I don’t feel like we’re backing into anything,” Mullins said. “We were dead and buried here before Christmas and these guys have really battled here to pull themselves out. If we secure a playoff spot maybe not the way we want, we’re going to take it, because we’ve had to earn it along the way. We maybe didn’t earn it this weekend, but throughout the last month and a half, two months, we’ve earned it. We really have.”

With just one regular season came left on the schedule, against Topeka at home on Friday, March 28, the Tornado still have three exhibition contests between now and then. First up on the docket is a two-game set next Friday and Saturday against the U.S. National Under-18 team. This is not the same team that is a regular NAHL member, but one loaded with NHL prospects that won the U-18 World Championships back in the Fall (both 7:30 pm start times - listen to Tommy Daniels and myself with the call on b2 networks).

Then of course, is the much-anticipated Pros vs. Prospects IV contest on Friday, March 21, featuring the Tornado facing off against such former NHL stars as Brett Hull, Neal Broten, Pat Verbeek, Luc Robitaille, Al Secord and Ludwig himself, not to mention many others.

The mindset for these games will be to get the team untracked and feeling good about themselves again, even if the match-ups don’t officially count in the standings.

“We’ll just continue to try to move forward,” Mullins said. “Our goal is to get to the playoffs and hopefully, we can learn from some of this to get better.”


THREE STARS

3. Matt Hartmann, Topeka (one goal, three shots on goal)
2. Bryce Merriam, Topeka (19 saves, second straight shut out)
1. Eriah Hayes, Topeka (one goal, four shots on goal)

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