Late Strike Pushes Premier Eels Past Juniors 4-3
By Nick Roesch
Fort Myers, FL- With two minutes to spare in regulation, Nikita Pinimyasov notched his third game winning goal of the season to send the (25-12-2-0) Eels Premier team to a 4-3 victory against the (13-22-2-2) Tampa Bay Juniors on Sunday afternoon at the Fort Myers Skatium.
It was the Juniors who started the game off on the right foot after Patrik Tuma batted an airborne puck into the net at the 6:12 marker of the first period. Matej Dejdar and Paul Flidr both picked up assists on the lone goal in the opening portion of play.
Tampa Bay was off to yet another fast start in the 2nd after Matej Dejdar blasted home a one-timer in the near circle with help from Paul Flidr to make the score 2- 0. It was the Juniors’ only power play conversion of the game out of two opportunities which came 3:49 into period 2.
The Eels were finally able to get on the board in the 2nd when JS Robidoux wedged the puck from the far hashmark to a wide open Demeed Podrezov, who scored with a forehander on the breakaway. The conversion cut the Juniors’ lead in half 2-1 with 14:23 on the clock.
Nearly four minutes later, Colton Crabtree tied up the game at 2 apiece on a breakaway after receiving a long feed down the ice from JS Robidoux. After the tape-to-tape reception, Crabtree chipped the puck over the left shoulder of Juniors goaltender Connor Green and in with 10:36 until the 2nd intermission.
The Eels kept their hot streak going just 1:05 later when Demeed Podrezov hit the twine for the 2nd time of the game with a point-blank wrist shot on the doorstep. JS Robidoux picked up his 2nd assist on the play to make the score 3-2. The Eels went into the locker rooms with the one-goal advantage after 40 minutes of regulation.
As they did in the previous two periods, the Juniors came right out of the gates with offensive pressure in the 3rd as they quickly found the equalizer courtesy of
Tyler Schaeffer. Mark Louria went with a post-to-post pass to Tampa’s leading scorer, who tapped it under the leg of Eels goaltender Danick Francoeur and in.
The final goal of the game came from Nikita Pinimyasov with 2 minutes left in the game. Pinimyasov slowly skated the puck to the left circle where he shoveled in the game winner on the backhand.
Eels goaltender Danick Francoeur earned his 7th win in net this season after stopping 31 shots out of 34 faced. The Eels finished the game leading 42-34 in shots on goal.
The Premier Eels will return to action this Friday when they travel to Daytona to battle the DME Swamp Rabbits. Puck drop is scheduled for 3 PM and you can catch all the action live on HockeyTV.
