Neurosis Slaughtered In St. Louie
Muhlstein Melts Down, Filippov Finds Lack of Offense Offensive in 7-1 Drubbing
ST. LOUIS - Goaltender Duane Muhlstein allowed six goals on the 39 shots he faced, and the Neurosis attack gave St.Louis keeper Travis Kleppe an easy night's work as the defending Champion STLBLUEZ thumped NHN 7-1 at the Death Trap.
Muhlstein was coming off a strong outing his last time out at the Sacred Heart Aud in which he turned aside 33 of 34 Steel City shots in backstopping the Neurosis to a 2-1 win, in a game where they were outshot 34-13. The Neurosis' all-time winningest netminder had no such heroics up his sleeve for the Bluez as NHN fell to 4-2 on the young season.
St. Louis led 2-0 at the first intermission following an evenly played 1st period. Max Cabotaje (1st goal of the season) and Ellis Nin (5th) solved Muhlstein, while Kleppe had the answer for all 11 shots he faced. Cabotaje opened the scoring at 9:11, poking his own rebound between Muhlstein's pads following a draw win by Ola Motley deep in the NHN zone.
Nin's power-play goal at 12:42 of the period came with NHN defensemen Foma Petrov in the box, a penalty that so enraged Head Coach Varlam Filippov that he chained Petrov to the bench the rest of the way. Petrov's defense partner, Bennett Jongebloed forced a St. Louis turnover, then winger Gunnar Jollie dropped the puck back to Petrov as NHN regrouped in neutral ice. Petrov was summarily dumped by St. Louis' Lauren Grey, and, unable to find a sympathetic referee, Petrov took out his frustrations on the first St. Louisian he encountered, drawing the high-sticking minor that led to the Nin goal. The stat sheet revealed that the veteran banger saw only 8:49 of ice time on the night, leading to speculation about his hold on his place in the defensive rotation going into Monday's night's game at expansion Dickfers. A taut-faced Filippov had no comment.
NHN 4th liner Bryce Lienke found himself with a glorious opportunity to spark the Neurosis in the 2nd period. With NHN up a man, Lienke gathered up an Ola Motley turnover and went in alone on Kleppe, only to be stoned by the St. Louis netminder with just over six and a half minutes to play in the frame. The 22 year-old left winger was possibly the only identifiable bright spot in the dim night for NHN coach Varlam Filippov. "He didn't play tentatively at all. He accomplished much more in his six minutes of ice time than Zigich and Dacres did combined playing 22. No one on the third line so much as shot the puck. Lienke has earned more responsibility" the coach said. Rocky Columbres made it 3-0 Bluez with under a minute to go in the 2nd.
Through two periods, the shots were nineteen a side. "We had the puck," a frustrated Filippov opined "but we refused to take it to the net, or put it on net. All night long it was 'pass, pass, pass, long pass, saucer pass, turnover and they're going the other way. We had zero aggressiveness. We didn't have any kind of killer instinct."
NHN cut the lead to 3-1 at the 3:00 mark of the 3rd period on a power-play. NHN winger Blair Roarty notched his 4th of the season on a determined effort that saw him raise the puck over the left shoulder of Kleppe on his third try after being sent in by Jollie.
Any hope of seizing the momentum was quashed when St. Louis answered just 35 seconds later as Arden Tise (10th) capitalized on a stick-handling gaffe by Muhlstein and tucked the puck between his pads to restore St. Louis' three-goal lead. "That goal can't happen" said Filippov. "We'd just gotten ourselves started, and that happened." Filippov was unambiguous in stating that he would continue rotating his goalies, meaning rookie Dwain Preddy will get the call Monday night. The coach deflected questions about a goalie controversy, or whether Muhlstein ought to come right back Monday in an effort to get the taste of this one out of his mouth.
NHN appeared to raise the white flag at that point, as evidenced by their being outshot 20-4 in the 3rd period (39-23 for the game). Izot Melnikov (2nd of the season at 6:28) and Novak Voetsch (1st at 11:33) became the 5th and 6th different Bluez to profit at Muhlstein's expense before Columbres scored into an empty net for his 2nd of the night (3rd of the season) with 1:09 left to close the scoring for the 6-0 Bluez. The disgusted coach said he would consider shaking up the lineup in an attempt to get NHN out of it's early season funk. Former 1st rounder Nate Lorimer has sat out the last two games due to coach;s decisions, and RW Johnnie Barnhill has sat the last four. It is also possible the coach will try new combinations of the lineup he's gone with the last two games.