Monday, February 25, 2008

Portage Central 3 Portage Northern 1


The Portage Central Mustangs completed a season sweep over crosstown rival Portage Northern tonight with a 3-1 victory at the Annex in Kalamazoo. Emotion ruled the first period as both teams traded great scoring chances. The Mustangs jumped ahead with only 4:17 remaining in the opening period when Jeremy Renda intercepted a clearing attempt in the Huskies zone. He found Matt Ragains in perfect position and Ragains ripped a shot past a sprawling Barry Toornman. The first period ended with the score 1-0 even though the Huskies out shot the Mustangs 8-7.

Period number two was complete domination by the Mustangs. They possessed the puck for most of the period and the frustrated Huskies started chasing instead of reacting. Kegan Hoerle put PC ahead 2-0 when he caught a great Todd Miller pass between two Husky defenders and scored a very nice break away goal. Shots on goal in the second period were 17 to 5 in favor of the Portage Central.

Jared Hook delivered the knock out blow early in the third period. His shot whistled passed the glove of Toornman and the Mustangs had a 3-goal lead. Erik Hoffman set up the goal with great patience and puck control after receiving the puck from Miller. With less than two minutes remaining in the 3rd, Northern's Nicco Braganini spoiled the shutout when he scored a powerplay goal. The goal was set up nicely by Kevin Campbell and Travis Tuma. Brogan VandeVelde earned the victory stopping 13 of 14 shots. Barry Toornman took the loss after stopping 26 out of 29 Mustang shots. You can also read about the game in the Kalamazoo Gazette.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chris Sandmeyer was outstanding on D for PC in the victory. He was the Best player on the ice last night.