Accelerators Win Home Opener
Saskatoon - December 20, 2008
The Saskatoon Accelerators kicked off their home opener Saturday night against the Colorado Lightning, who were playing their second game in two nights.
Colorado, a little road weary from the five hour trip from Edmonton, got off to a slow, sluggish start. The Accelerators carried the play in the first quarter. Steven Krieg opened the scoring taking advantage of a Lightning turnover. Matt Mehrassa scored at the 9:45 mark to make it 2-0. Saskatoon continued to dominate the first quarter as Jay Tomchuk was awarded a penalty shot. He made no mistake as he went left post to increase the lead to 3-0. It looked like Saskatoon had added to their lead at the close of the quarter, but the highlight reel goal was disallowed and Saskatoon was assessed a penalty on the play.
The second quarter was highlighted by the outstanding play of lightning goaltender Michael Archuleta. Archuleta made several key saves to which lead to a swing in the momentum for the Lightning. The Lightning’s Ben Mendozza scored at 9:21 to cut the deficit to 3-1. Two minutes later Zach Cousins of the Lightning scored, this time on the power play, as the lead was trimmed to 3-2.
Saskatoon Coach, Sipho Sibiya had seen enough and called a time out. The timeout seemed to spark the Accelerators. Saskatoon’s pressure lead to a lightning turnover by Ben Mendozza, this allowed Jordan Schidlowsky to walk in and blast home a shot to restore the 2 goal lead going into halftime.
The third quarter was again highlighted by the play of Lightning goalie Michael Archuleta as Saskatoon had the majority of the scoring opportunities. The quarter ended the way it started with Saskatoon leading 4-2.
Just two minutes into the fourth quarter Saskatoon’s 17 year old star, Scott DeBianchi scored to increase the lead to 5-2. Rough play was the theme of the fourth quarter as both teams began to mix it up. With 4:42 left to play Craig Deacon lit the lamp for the Lightning to make the score 5-3. That was as close as the Lightning would get as Saskatoon held on for the 5-3 win.