DECATUR, ILLINOIS – JANUARY 9, 2000

 

The Quad City Ice Eagle Bantam team extended its four-year domination of the Decatur Flames with two more convincing wins in games played Sunday morning at the Decatur Civic Arena.  The win in the first game which counted in the CIHL standings kept the Eagles in first place with a league record of 5-1.  The scores were 4-1 in the first game and 3-1 in the second.

 

Sometimes the Eagles have a bit of trouble focusing when they play an early-morning contest, but that was not the case Sunday, as the Eagles took the ice for the first game of the day, which would be the official league game.  Quad Cities got on the board early in the first period when Josh Moon broke in on left wing and then feathered a perfect centering pass to Les Mooney who converted the goalmouth pass into his second goal of the season.   A few minutes later, while killing a penalty, Moon picked up a pass from Jason Corcoran in the neutral zone, and after ragging the puck for a few seconds, Moon crossed the blue line.  When the Decatur defenseman backed in instead of challenging the shot, Moon let fly from about 30 feet out and cleanly beat the goalie high to the stick side.  Moon got his second of the game before the end of the first period, when he converted a pass from Austin Busch.

 

The Eagles increased the lead to 4-0 midway through the second period when Austin Busch took Corcoran’s pass from the left point and beat the goalie from close in.  After two periods, the Eagles were in control, as Goalie Brandon Morgan was making all the stops in the Eagle net.  Morgan, however, couldn’t quite pull out the shutout, as Decatur took advantage of an Eagle turnover late in the third period to score their only goal.  Still the 4-1 win, particularly after a three-week layoff, gives the Eagles good momentum for the second half of their season.

 

The second game featured the outstanding offensive efforts of Eagle winger Justin Welsh, who scored all three Q-C goals, and the goon tactics of Decatur’s Johnson who picked up a handful of penalties with his undisciplined play.  Welsh got his first goal of the game when he scored after picking up a rebound of Corcoran’s shot from the point.  However, in this game, Decatur hung tough and was able to tie the game with 7:57 left in the second period when Pangrac scored on a backhander that went in over Brandon Kruse’s shoulder.  What could have been a very interesting and entertaining hockey game then got a little ugly, thanks to the aforementioned Johnson.  As Johnson tried a rush into the Eagle zone along the left boards, he was nailed by a textbook hip-check by Ryne Takacs, a perfectly legal hit.  Johnson then angrily got up and slashed Takacs along the side of his helmet, and seconds later sent Corcoran crashing into the boards with a flagrant check from behind.  Neither infraction was called.  Later in the shift, he slashed Takacs again, and again no call.  This seemed to fire up the Eagles, and Justin Welsh in particular, because he scored two more goals in just 33 seconds.  Both were on rebounds, the first on a rebound of Mark Muenstermann’s shot, and a few seconds later, Justin got his hat trick goal batting in Takac’s shot. 

 

With Decatur now trailing 3-1, Johnson continued to goon it up.  The referee called a delayed penalty for cross-checking, and before Decatur gained control of the puck, Johnson went after Tom Parkinson with another flagrant check from behind.  Finally, the officials nailed him with a major penalty, which effectively took him out of the balance of the game.  Goalie Brandon Kruse held Decatur to only one goal, and the Eagles got their sweep.  The victories improve the Eagles’ record to 18-6-1, with the team heading to Chicago to play in the Extravaganza tournament next weekend.