Salt Lake hockey fans had little to cheer about at the Delta Center Thursday night, as the Golden Eagles were outplayed both offensively and defensively by the Kansas City Blades.
But at least the Eagles had four good excuses for losing at home by five goals, 6-1.Excuse No. 1: no Todd Harkins. The center is the team's leading goal scorer and point earner . But Wednesday he was called up by the parent Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League.
Excuse No. 2: no Rich Chernomaz. The Eagle captain has 24 points on the year, which is second to Harkins. But he was also called up to Calgary on Wednesday.
Excuse No. 3: no Darryl Olsen. The Eagles' best defensive player, who is third on the team in assists, sat out of the game due to an illness.
Excuse No. 4: Kansas City is the best team in the IHL. The Blades own the league's best record of 22-7-1 and have won six consecutive games. "Their record speaks for itself," Eagle coach Bob Francis said. "They are a solid team."
Being shorthanded in the personnel department, Francis wanted his team to be on the defensive from the get-go. "We tried to simplify the game plan as much as possible, hoping to just keep it close enough to have a chance to win at the end," Francis said. "But they scored a couple of goals right out of the chute and it's tough to play catch-up hockey with the type of game plan we had."
Salt Lake was hurt by a couple of former Eagles. Peter Lappin, who played for Salt Lake during two campaigns (most recently in 1989-90), got the Blades off to a quick start with a pair of goals in the first period, his 10th and 11th of the year. Then late in the game Rick Lessard, who wore a Salt Lake uniform last year, found the net for a Kansas City insurance goal. Lessard has spent most of the season with the NHL's San Jose Sharks but was recently sent down to Kansas City. It was his first goal of the year for the Blades.
Kansas City scored two goals in each of the three periods in administering the lopsided victory.
"We knew they had just lost a couple of very good players, but we try to pay very little attention to the personnel of the other team," Blades coach Kevin Constantine said. "It's dangerous to assume that because a team is shorthanded that you can come in and win. We wanted to get out to a good start and we were able to do that."
After Lappin scored a pair in the first period, Craig Coxe and Ron Handy added goals in the second for a 4-0 Kansas City lead.
The only suspense in the third period was to see if Blade goalie Wade Flaherty would earn his first shutout of the season. He seemed well on his way, but the Eagles finally got on the scoreboard at the 15:03 mark of the third when Darren Banks scored.
Shortly thereafter, the Blades added two goals in less than a minute to provide the final margin of victory.
"You always want a shutout, but getting the win was the most important thing," said Flaherty, who improved his record to 13-5 on the year. "My goal is to just go out there and play steady and I did that, so I can't worry about losing a shutout."
Jason Muzzatti took the loss for Salt Lake. His record is now 7-5-1 on the year.
"I can't be disappointed with the effort. Everybody tried hard," Francis said.
The Eagles are now 13-14-1 on the year and still in fourth place in the IHL West. Salt Lake trails third-place San Diego by just one point, and the Eagles will face the Gulls tonight and Saturday night in the San Diego Sports Arena.