Prescott
Valley, AZ 2/13/08 – The Amarillo Gorillas got back on the
winning track on Wednesday night, knocking off the Arizona Sundogs by a final
score of 5-4. It was the Gorillas third straight win over the Sundogs, as
Amarillo is now
3-1-0 against their Southwest Division rivals this season. The win came on the
heels of a 3-1 loss at New
Mexico the previous night, which halted the Gorillas
season best five game win streak. Amarillo has now won six out of seven games,
and was able to gain sole possession of the fifth and final playoff spot in the
Southern Conference, now one point ahead of the Austin Ice
Bats.
Amarillo had an early lead
when Brett McConnachie scored at 1:56 on the power-play, but Arizona’s Tyler Liebel
would counter with a short-handed goal at 7:59 to tie the game. Dusty Collins
gave the Sundogs the lead 2-1, with his goal at 11:27 of the first, and that
score would remain until Chris Lipsett knotted the game at 2-2 with his second
period goal at 9:57. Arizona would regain the lead at 14:06 off of Barry
Horman’s goal, but Amarillo would again battle back to tie it at 1:44 of the
third period with Austin Sutter’s tally. The Gorillas would score the next two
goals of the game to take a 5-3 lead, before Jason Visser brought the Dogs back
to within one at 18:05. Dan McWhinney and the rest of the defense would shut
the door the rest of the way however, and Amarillo held on for their seventeenth win of
the season.
The Gorillas out-shot the
Sundogs 40-35 in the game, going 1-5 on the power-play and holding Arizona to 0-1.
Amarillo will
head home and be back in action this weekend with a pair of home games on
Saturday and Sunday night against the Scorpions and Ice Bats respectively. Both
games start at 7:05 PM.
