News release
5 November 2004
Port Huron, MI - The Elmira Jackals, led by Jeff Antonovichs two-goal performance, overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat the Port Huron Beacons Friday night 5-3.
Meeting for the first time since last years Eastern Conference Finals, the Jackals were eager to take advantage of Port Hurons slow start at McMorran Place Arena. But after a scoreless first period, it was the Beacons who scored first. Nine minutes into the second periods Trevor Edwards opened the scoring, getting assists from Nick Lees and Chris Slater. Two minutes later on the power play Lees, who was appearing in his first ever game for Port Huron, gave his team a 2-0 lead from Edwards and Andrew Shier.
It was said in the arena that the Beacons had just played their best period of hockey this season and the fans were wound up at McMorran, but none of them were prepared for Elmiras third period response. Elmira scored four straight goals to open the period and out-scored Port Huron 5-1 in the final 20 minutes. Jeff Antonovich started things off at 1:45 as he poked in a rebound from Darren Van Oene and Adam Nittel. After bombarding Stu Dunn in the Port Huron net, the Jackals got the equalizer from an unlikely source. Former Beacon defenseman Simon Poirier took a shot from the blue line off a face off that slipped past Dunn at 10:00; assisted by Greg Koehler and Jamie Thompson.
But the story of the third period was the Antonovich, Van Oene, and Nittel line which had its best offensive night to date. Antonovich scored his second goal of the game at 11:27, again assisted by Van Oene and Nittel, to put Elmira into a 3-2 lead. The onslaught continued as Jason Sessa scored his 7th power play goal of the year at 14:53 from Trevor Burgess and Van Oene to cap four straight goals by the Jackals. Only the stellar play of Lees broke the ever rushing tide of Elmira attacking pressure. Lees scored his second goal of the contest by skating through the defense and beating goaltender Greg Hewitt between the pads to cut the lead to 4-3 at 17:20. But this game had been snatched away and now belonged to the Jackals. The next mayor of Elmira Eddy Lowe zipped in an empty net goal from the red line with 34 seconds remaining in the game to put the Beacons to bed; assists on the final goal went to Hewitt and Carl Drakensjo.
Hewitt looked sharp as usual as he recorded his 7th win of the season, moving Elmiras 1st place Eastern Division record to 7-3-0 on the year; he finished the game with 23 saves on 26 Port Huron shots. Dunn made 24 saves on 29 Elmira shots in the loss.
The Jackals will complete their 4 game road trip Saturday night in Kalamazoo as they take on the Wings at 7:30 pm at Wings Stadium.