Dodos Hockey was missing six players heading into Sunday's game against the rival Wings, including this season's leading scorer, team captain and an assistant captain. But what the Dodos (10-2) did have versus the Wings (3-9) was Pat Heninger. The Wings have hated Heninger for going-on three seasons now, with the hatred escalating during last season's championship series.
The Wings picked up right where they left off against Heninger, sending goon after goon his way, charging him, bumping him, tripping him with no whistle blown, doing whatever they could to disrupt his play and possibly get him to retaliate and force the line on the Dodos' depleted bench (three players) to get ever shorter. But Heninger defended the Wings' advances and scored the first goal of the game with a beautiful assist from Bryan Silvey. The Wings would close out the first period with two goals, however, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Heninger scored the lone goal in a whistle-filled second period, in which the Dodos found themselves in the box three times, while the Wings were only called for two penalties (ONLY is the key word). Nonetheless, the Dodos persevered and found themselves tied with the Wings at the end of two periods of play.
Third period action saw both teams putting shot after shot on goal, and following a James Lascala roughing penalty, Heninger scored an unassisted, power-play goal, giving him a hat trick and the Dodos the lead. Nine minutes later, Joe Madden skated into the Wings' zone and took a shot from just inside the blue line that went in to score. It was an insurance goal the Dodos surely needed because 13 seconds later, the Wings ran a four-on-two play to perfection, beating the defenders and goaltender Chris Barrera to cut the lead to 4-3.
The Dodos found themselves defending their zone for the remainder of the game, narrowly avoiding a couple goals during the Wings' attack to secure the victory and a six-game winning streak.
Watch the highlight video here: http://youtu.be/HaD19cMukMs
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