Blue Tongues come up short Sunday in comeback Vs Melbourne Ice

The Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Blue Tongues went down 5-4 to the Melbourne Ice in their second game of the weekend on Sunday.

The Blue Tongues started off the game with Brad Smulders centering Andre Selander and welcoming back Dave Upton. The Blue Tongues came out hard looking to take three points from Melbourne.  Maybe even a little too hard as it caused the Ice player, Andrew Taylor, to take a ten minutes misconduct penalty for checking to the head of Blue Tongues player, Marco Bertossa at 13:49. The Blue Tongues were able to get only one shot on Stuart Denman, until the Ice, Mark Forth drew another penalty at 12:50, which then gave the Blue Tongues a 5 on 3 for 1:39.  Yet, the Blue Tongues were unable to capitalize on the power play.  As the Ice player, Tom Powell stepped on the ice to make it a 5 on 4 for the Blue Tongues, it was then Blue Tongue import Chris Martin who was assessed a penalty for interference at 11:51, to make it 4 on 4 for 1:00 minute.

Melbourne Ice took advantage of the 4 on 4 by putting on some pressure.  The Ice continued the pressure even when the teams were both back to full strength. This led to a goal by Melbourne's Matt Watkins at 8:44.  Watkins was able get a shot in the slot after a lost faceoff from the Blue Tongues.

Shortly after the goal at 7:51 the Blue Tongues headed to the power play when Keith Seckington was sent to the penalty box for holding.  Yet, the power play combination for the Blue Tongues struggled and caused Henrik Ivarsson to take a penalty at 7:37 for boarding.

With 2:03 left in the period, Matt Watkins scored again off the faceoff, and the Melbourne Ice went to the locker room with a two goal lead.  The Blue Tongues struggled with their faceoffs, managing to win 49% of the faceoffs compared to 84% the previous day.

At the start of the second period it didn’t take the Blue Tongues long to answer back, and at 12:30 Brad Smulders banged one home from the hard work of Dave Upton and Henrik Ivarsson.

The game seem to start to shift for the Blue Tongues, until Chris Martin was sent to the penalty box for charging at 9:44, followed by Brad Smulders for slashing at 9:30.   The penalty killers put up a great fight and only allowed one shot, but as the Blue Tongues returned to full strength, Melbourne ice was able to regain a two-goal lead with Keith Seckington beating CJ Anderson through the five hole.

Then it was Melbourne Ice's turn to draw the penalties. First one at 6:08 by Mitch Jones for hooking, then at 3:09 by Awan Moss for cross checking.  The Blue Tongues were only able to capitalize on the second power play, with a goal at 2:35 by Andre Selander.

The second period came to an end with a roar, having two fights breaking out.  Mark Forth tried to “pick” a fight with Andre Selander and Ben Spillane fought Dylan Moore.  Andre Selander was charged with two minutes for roughing and misconduct, allowing him to play only the last minute of the third period.  Ben Spillane was ejected from the game for fighting.

The third period began with the teams playing 4 on 4 for four minutes.  At 13:20 Cameron Trew was charged with hooking penalty, sending the Melbourne Ice on a 4 on 3 power play.  CJ Anderson made a fantastic glove save, and stopped three shots, to kill off the penalty.  However, the Melbourne Ice continued to put pressure, causing a giveaway up the center allowing Jack McCoy to get a shot, and beat CJ Anderson at 9:40.

Jonny Bale would get the team within in 1 at 6:07, with the help from Henrik Ivarsson and Brad Smulders.  This goal by the Blue Tongues was quickly followed up with Dave Upton scoring on the power play with assists to Brad Smulders and Chris Martin with 3.46 left in the game.  

It looked as if the game was going to be heading to another shootout, yet Melbourne Ice got a fortunate break, and capitalised on a 2 on 0 against CJ Anderson, allowing Sean Jones to beat Anderson top shelf at 2:20.  The Blue Tongues put a great effort to try to tie it up, but Stuart Denman denied the Blue Tongues, making the final score 5 – 4 Melbourne Ice.

The Blue Tongues will continue their 8 game road trip this coming weekend with two games, Saturday and Sunday in Canberra.