Scorpions end home losing streak

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

If familiarity breeds contempt, the New Mexico Scorpions and Arizona Sun Dogs are going to hate each other by the end of Saturday night, if they don’t already.

New Mexico snapped a six-game home losing streak and moved into a tie for second place in the Southwest Division on Friday, defeating Arizona 7-5 in the first of back-to-back games against the defending league champions.

The two teams scored four goals and had three fights in the final three minutes, prompting the strongest fan reaction of the home season from the crowd of 2,505 fans.

Coach Randy Murphy earned the first game misconduct penalty of his career and was ejected with 27.3 seconds left, which meant he missed the final two goals of the game, one by each team.

All game misconduct penalties in the final five minutes of the game are reviewed by the league office, team spokesman Adam Minnick said. That means the team won’t know until 4 p.m. Mountain time if Murphy will be on the bench for Saturday’s game or will face suspension

Statisticians were still figuring out the numbers more than 30 minutes after the game to make sure they had correctly recorded all the action. The two teams combined for 121 penalty minutes in the game, with 81 coming in the final 20 minutes.

John Mazzei’s backhanded goal with 2:51 left gave New Mexico a 5-4 lead and seemingly was the game winner. Instead, it was just the beginning of the wildest three minutes of the season.

When New Mexico’s Jamie Herrington scored an empty-net goal with 27.1 seconds left, the Scorpions victory seemed assured. But seconds after the goal New Mexico assistant captain Chris Robertson and Karl Sellan squared off, with Robertson earning 27 minutes in penalty time for various fighting offenses and Sellan 15.

When Murphy attempted to stand up for his team, he was given 12 minutes of penalty time for what he described later as a “gesture” toward the officials.

Using a man-advantage after pulling its goaltender, Arizona got within a goal at 6-5 on Joel Irving’s goal with 5.5 seconds left. But Craig Macdonald gained control of the final faceoff and scored New Mexico’s final goal on its second empty-netter of the night.

Before the hectic final period, the game was a normal struggle between two division opponents. The Scorpions started with a two-goal lead, fell behind early in the third period, scored twice to regain only to give it up again.

New Mexico led 2-0 after the first period, the first time in six home games it had scored the initial goal. Aaron MacInnis’ short-handed goal off a pass from Robertson came just 2:37 into the contest.

The second goal, a rebound power play goal by Seth Leonard, came with just 1.7 seconds left in the period after a tripping penalty by Arizona's Andre Selander in the final two minutes. Leonard's goal helped the Scorpions improve on a recent 3-for-45 performance on the power play going back more than seven games plus the first period.

Arizona cut the margin to 2-1 just past midway of the second period at the end of a strange sequence where both teams had 5-on-3 advantages at one point.

The penalty parade started when New Mexico’s Mike MacDonald (tripping at 6:06 of the period) and goalie Andrew Martin (slashing at 6:40) drew penalties. Martin turned away three Arizona scoring surges during as the two-man disadvantage turned into one, then even when Jon Landry was called for roughing. When Sun Dog Sean Zimmerman was called for hooking 1:24 later, New Mexico had the two-man advantage but couldn’t convert.

Still down a man, Arizona’s Adam Perry scored a shorthanded goal with 9:01 remaining in the period. That goal seemed to awaken both teams, who had two false starts at fights before Robertson and Kyle Hood each drew penalties.

Perry scored an unassisted goal with both teams at full strength with 3:26 left in the period to even the game entering the final period.

Arizona took its first lead 17 seconds into the third period when Joel Irving redirected a shot from Perry that came off a pass from Zimmerman. Though that took the starch out of the Scorpions for the next 10 minutes, New Mexico stayed in the game until Macdonald evened the contest with a goal with 9:33 remaining.

As the two teams lined up for the subsequent faceoff, Aaron MacInnis and Arizona’s Tyler Libel exchanged blows, leaving both teams a man short. The extra room proved good for Leonard, who scored his second goal 1:30 later to give New Mexico the lead again, only to lose it 2:26 later o A.J. MacLean’s goal off an assist by Perry and Zimmerman from behind the net tied the game again.

When New Mexico’s Sam Bowles squared off with Mark Kolanos with 2:59 left in the game, both teams were in a 4-on-4 matchup. It took only eight seconds for Torren Delaforte to gain control of the faceoff and flip the puck to Mazzel to give the Scorpions the lead for good.

The Scorpions, 6-8-1 overall, won its season opener against Amarillo on Oct. 17. Since then, New Mexico has managed only one point in games at the Santa Ana Star Center, rallying from a six-goal deficit on Oct. 25, only to lose to Wichita 7-6 in overtime.

With the victory Friday, New Mexico improved to 13 points, the same as Arizona. Odessa improved to 16 points, gaining one with a 5-4 overtime home loss to Rio Grande Valley by rallying from a three-goal deficit in the third period.
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