After four straight losses and six defeats in their last seven games, and after a string of 18 days since their last home victory, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles finally found a way to beat adversity and bad luck in defeating Cleveland 5-4 in a shootout Friday night at the Delta Center.
The Eagles came back from three different forms of adversity to earn their first win since a 3-2 victory in Las Vegas on Nov. 6. Their last home win was a 4-2 triumph over Vegas on Nov. 1. Friday night, the Birds would not be denied.Cleveland scored two first-period goals, both from Dave Michayluk, the first on a power play at 2:30 on a tip-in and the second at 15:54 when goalie Jamie McLennan went down on a crossing pass and Michayluk beat him to the right. Salt Lake fought back, however, dominating the Lumberjacks in the second period and tying the score when Chris Taylor scored off a pass from Sandy Smith at 1:07 and Zigmund Palffy nailed a slap shot from 20 feet at 17:02.
The 'Jacks regained the lead at 2:09 of the third when Leonid Toropchenko was credited with a controversial goal despite a replay which clearly showed he'd kicked the puck past McLennan. Salt Lake overcame that with scores from Palffy, who took a loose pass at the blue line and tallied at 11:35, and Jason Simon, who scored his first goal as an Eagle at 14:06. Cleveland gained another tie 62 seconds later, however, when Toropchenko intercepted a lazy pass and went in alone on McLennan at 15:08.
The shootout was all Eagles, however. On the second round of shots, Taylor beat Roberto Romano to the left to give Salt Lake a 1-0 lead, and following Cleveland's fourth miss in as many tries after McLennan made solid saves, Palffy (who else) beat Romano to the right for the Eagles' fifth victory of the season.
"I thought we deserved to win the hockey game. Once the shootout started I just felt it was going to be in our favor tonight," Eagles' coach Dave Farrish stated. "There was a good feeling on the bench and the confidence was flowing, and I just felt we were going to win the shootout as well."
Salt Lake will host the Lumberjacks again tonight at 7 p.m. in the Delta Center.