All Coyotes affiliates win to ring in New Year – Hat Trick
By Troy Baker
It was a Happy New Year especially for Coyotes fans and the fans of their affiliates. Pirates, Sundogs, and Gladiators all score wins before 2012 ended.
Chad Nehring, a 25-year-old product of Saskatchewan scored 4 goals in 23 minutes to lead the Sundogs attack as Arizona blazed the Blaze. Derek LeBlanc scored 37 seconds into the game and it was all downhill from there. Brown stopped 27 of 29 shots to get the win. Stat sheet overflowed with points this night which included 8 players with assists. All scoring occurred in the first two periods as both sides cooled after a ton of penalty minutes which will happen in a one sided blowout. Sundogs hope the fireworks continue as they face the same team days later in Prescott.
Coyotes prospect Mike Lee stopped 42 of 43 shots as the Gwinnett Gladiators crushed the Evansville IceMen for 3-1 snow cone on New Year’s Eve, Monday night at the Ford Center. Tyler Murovich scored 22 seconds in the first period as well as 39 seconds into the second period, which was the difference this night for Gwinnett. Scott Arnold added the third goal in the third period as this game was never really close. Murovich a Pittsburgh product had a fantastic two on one rush that resulted in a wrister past the Evansville goalie. The Gladiators start 2013 in Fort Wayne, as they take on the Komets at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Portland defeated Connecticut 4-3 in a shootout to end 2012. Goal scorers included Chris Summer, Mathieu Brodeur, Ethan Werek, and Jordan Szwarz. The other Chad Johnson stopped 32 of 35 shots to get the win. The Whale had a whale of a time sprinting out to a 3 – 0 lead. Just when they were making their party plans, the Pirates boarded their ship and harpooned that whale with 4 unanswered goals to erase the 3 goal deficit. Next up Portland will have a home and home date with Providence.
All and all it was a pretty good last day of 2012 for the Coyotes affiliates.