Kansas City does not get the start to the weekend they could have hoped for. With their division being so tight, walking away from a game without any points is something they want to avoid. On Friday January 19th they faced off against the Detroit Red Wings affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. They break early for a 2 goal lead in the first and secures their victory with an empty netter just shy of the one minute mark in the third period.
When in Doubt, Fight it Out
If the fans in the building came expecting the boxing gloves to be laced tight tonight, they got quite the show. If they wanted to see the goal lamp light up for the home team, they were in the wrong arena. Mavericks Captain, Tyler Elbrecht has a routine of picking a fight with anyone he can if the Mavs do not play a good opening period and need a little bit of an energy boost. He got into a fight just seconds after goal number 2 that absolutely electrified the building. Troy Donnay took a page out of his book as well and picked a guy of his own to scrap with on the next puck drop. However, this guy did not go down as easy and actually dragged Donnay by the jersey to the ice and started repeatedly punching him in the head. Not giving him any chance for rebuttal. Elbrecht yelled across the box and exchanged heated words with the other two opposing him. Tyler Elbrecht was apparently not satisfied by this alone as he skated over to a Walleye player before the 1st intermission was even over and picked another fight that landed him with 4 additional minutes in the box.
The Stockton Curse
When you’re the 2nd line of affiliation for a professional sports team you have to be prepared for your best guys to get called up and for lineups to need shuffling. At the moment, this team looks like one that is struggling to find their feet again. They have struggled with injuries all year and when some of their leading production guys get their shot in a higher level they want to be happy for them but they also still need to produce on their own. McDonald is taking most of the games now that Tyler Parsons is in Stockton and he still shows solid skill between the pipes that does not worry anyone substantially. KC signed 3 forwards this week and with this being their first game with the team, there was some apparent positioning errors and some communication that just wasn’t there yet. The trend this year seems to be whenever this team is able to find their footing, their key players get injured or called up. They all need to be solid as a unit so losing a player or two does not change the whole dynamic of their game.
Sometimes the Goalie is Just That Good
Without a doubt, Toledo’s goalie had a night. His body was in front of everything and there was very little space for the Mavericks to squeeze anything past him. Jared VanWormer found himself in a handful of almost sure goal situations but could not match up to the skill of the goalie. There was never a time where the goalie was scrambling or leaving a substantial part of the net open. He played a very composed game and really did earn the shutout rewarded to him for the night.
Cooling the Burn
The Mavericks don’t have time to hang their head over this one. They play the same team, same time tomorrow night and even if that does not go well they have no choice but to take the ice against them again on Sunday afternoon. There is a lot of hockey between these two teams in the next couple of days and the Mavericks need to use this to their advantage. If they carry themselves with the same energy they played through the second period, they should have a more respectable game that should reflect that on the scoreboard as well. They ended up outshooting Toledo and they needed to just turn up their intensity a bit more towards the end when the Walleye were lulled to sleep by their score that had stood for so long. There is hope for them in this mini series.
The Kansas City Mavericks and Toledo Walleye will face off again tomorrow night at 6:05pm MT and again on Sunday Jan 21 at 3:05pm MT.
