News release
23 March 2015
ELMIRA, NY - March 23, 2015 - The Elmira Jackals, proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and the AHL's Rochester Americans, continue their seven-game homestand with three games this week. On Wednesday, the Jackals host the Fort Wayne Komets and on Friday and Saturday, the Florida Everblades visit First Arena.
Overall Record: 31-25-7; sixth place in East Division, eighth place in Eastern Conference
Points: Mike Seidel & Taylor Stefishen (37)
3/25 vs. Fort Wayne Komets - 7:05 p.m. EST
On Wednesday, the Jackals and Komets clash for the second of three meetings this season and the only meeting at First Arena. The last time these two teams met occurred on January 30th, 2015. The last meeting at First Arena came on January 26th, 2014. Mike Vaskivuo scored twice and added an assist as the Jackals pushed past the Komets, 4-1. Jake Trask and Rob Bellamy also scored for the Jackals. The Jackals are 8-3-0 all-time against Fort Wayne.
3/27 vs. Florida Everblades - 7:05 p.m. EST; 3/28 vs. Florida Everblades - 7:05 p.m. EST
On Friday and Saturday, the Jackals continue their seven-game homestand against the Florida Everblades with the final two of four meetings this season and the second and third of three contests at First Arena. In the last meeting, the Jackals clawed back from a three-goal deficit and defeated Florida 6-5 in overtime. The first meeting of the season occurred on December 10th, 2014 at Germain Arena, which was the fifth game in a stretch where the Jackals played six games in seven nights. Elmira is 8-9-0 all-time against Florida.
The Jackals opened a seven-game homestand tonight against the Toledo Walleye in search of their third straight win, but Jeff Lerg would spoil Elmira's effort in a 3-0 Toledo victory. The Jackals generated multiple scoring chances in the first period, including a blast off the crossbar by Nick Tuzzolino, but the Walleye would strike first at 13:15 of the frame. Cody Lampl out-waited Trevor Gerling's sliding block attempt, walked into the slot and ripped home his seventh goal of the season. Alden Hirschfeld and Michael Leone earned the assists. Just over three minutes later the Walleye would double their lead with Kyle Bonis' one-time blast. A.J. Jenks forced a turnover at the Jackals' blueline and fed the puck to former Jackal Justin Daniels, who returned the feed to Jenks for the connection with Bonis in the right circle for his team-leading 29th goal of the season. Tyler Barnes added to Toledo's lead at 9:15 of the second period with his 21st goal of the season. Troy Schwab and Shane Sims earned the helpers on Barnes' power-play tally. The Walleye out-shot the Jackals 18-7 in the middle frame and 32-15 through 40 minutes of play. Neither team found the back of the net in the third period as the Jackals' comeback effort fell short. Sam Marotta stopped 36 of 39 shots faced, but was saddled with the loss. Jeff Lerg stopped all 21 shots faced for his fourth shutout of the season.
Zach Tolkinen scored a power-play goal late in the third period to tie the game and send it to overtime, but the Nailers would close out the Jackals in the shootout, 2-1. Neither team scored in the opening stanza, but there were three separate fights and 46 combined penalty minutes in the first 20 minutes of play. Joe Houk recorded his first professional fight with an early bout against Pat McGrath. Then, Lucas Bloodoff dropped the gloves with Harrison Ruopp and pumped the Nailer with a combination of rights and lefts. To round out the first period fight card, Justin Sawyer and Pat McGrath dropped the mitts off of a face-off and Sawyer proved to be the clear victor. Neither team netted the game's first marker in the second period either, so the game went to the third frame tied 0-0. Former Jackal Chaz Johnson recorded the game's first goal at 9:34 of the third period with a backdoor feed from Derek Army. Rookie blueliner Zach Tolkinen knotted the tying marker on the man advantage at 16:31 with a shot from the point that snuck through Franky Palazzese. Sixty-five minutes would not be enough to decide a winner, so the game went to a shootout. David Gilbert and Mike Ratchuk scored for the Nailers and Palazzese stopped attempts from Nick Tuzzolino, Steven Shamanski, Trevor Gerling and Mike Seidel to steal the extra point. Travis Fullerton stopped 33 of 34 shots faced and two more in the shootout, but was handed the hard-fought loss.