The fans in Huntsville are getting restless, as the 2009-10 home season has started with four straight 2-1 defeats.
“That’s four games in a row where we’ve had a chance to win all of them,” Chargers’ coach Danton Cole said, “but we haven’t figured out a way to get over the hump just yet. Our margin of error isn’t very big right now. We can’t just rely on ‘Talbie’ (Cameron Talbot) to save our bacon.”
Cole was happy with the effort he saw, even if the results disappointed him. “These four games are probably better than our first four. That’s the unfortunate thing.”
The two teams skated through the first two periods without scoring, and then Kevin Morrison scored on a scramble in front of Dan Bakala’s net to put the home team up by a goal.
“We should be able to win a game 1-0,” Cole said. “We just didn’t have the mental toughness to do that today.”
Beavers’ coach Tom Serratore was excited about his team’s play.
“We were opportunistic out there and took advantage of the situations given to us. We got good goaltending, and that was the difference for us.”
Matt Read, who scored both goals on Saturday night, tied the game up at one on a brilliant play where he took a turnover and deked Talbot for the breakaway score.
“I don’t know what to say,” Cole said. “No one around him, and we just gave him one.”
Serratore said of the goal, “The defenseman coughs up the puck right there, and coughs it up to the wrong guy. That was a big-time player making a big-time play for us.”
Ben Kinne scored the game-winner in overtime, and Serratore was pleased.
“It was just a situation where Bennie gets the puck with speed in the neutral zone, skates to the middle, and he lets go a high one. I don’t know if there was a partial screen or what, but somehow he beat Talbot.”
Cole was frustrated in talking about the game-winner.
“It’s just like last night. You let it get away from you for 10 seconds, and it’s over; there’s no next shift.”
Serratore praised his opposition, saying, “We’re very fortunate to come to Huntsville and get four points. I think that, overall, they carried the play the majority of the weekend.”
