Borodkin’s 46 Save Night Falls Short (12/19)

Biloxi, MS - After an eventful previous weekend between the Moccasins and Breakers, the two banged up clubs hit the ice in Biloxi to kick off a home and home set. Breakers netminder Anton Borodkin made 46 saves in a 3-1 defeat to the snakes this past Friday night in Biloxi. 

Period 1 was rather quiet. With significant injury trouble for both sides, a lot of goalscoring power remained in the stands. Monroe was able to generate 17 shots on goal, but Breakers netminder Anton Borodkin answered them all with a save. The start marked Borodkin’s first since November 26th, but he looked sharp. On the other end, the Breakers could only muster 3 shots of their own. Making his pro debut, Moccasins goaltender Tyler Masternak had a relatively easy workload through 20. The teams hit the dressing rooms with 40 more miles to go, still scoreless. 

Period 2 began quickly, with Frank Schumacher sliding a one-timer from the point past a screened Borodkin to open the scoring at 1-0 just 2:59 in. A couple minutes later, a gray area Monroe check led to a scrum and slew of penalty minutes. Ultimately, AJ Schlepp was the only one deserving of a match penalty. A unique 4 on 3 powerplay preceding a penalty kill would open the window of opportunity for the home team. Sure enough, in their return to the Breaker lineup, Aldi Nurlan fed a pass to Yaro Yevdokimov that was fired home to tie the game at 1. On their ensuing 3 minute powerplay, Monroe couldn’t manage too many opportunities, forfeiting their last minute by taking a penalty of their own. Back and forth we went into the back half of the contest. Back to playing 5-on-5, Monroe found their footing again. With just over 4 minutes remaining in the middle frame, Casey Gerstein crashed the net after a flurry of shots and was rewarded with a tap in goal to restore the Monroe lead at 2-1. After the horn, a Tucker Scantlebury shot from center ice hit Breakers forward Lucas Piekarczyk up high, leading to a 10 minute game misconduct. Piekarczyk would return to the bunch with a bubble for period 3. The Moccasins outshot the Breakers 17-8 in period 2. 

Period 3 had a methodical start. Anton Borodkin continued to make save after save, waiting on his offense to help him down the other end. Into the back half, another golden opportunity arose when Hagan Moe was assessed a match penalty for a hit to the head of Trey Fischer. With inside 7 minutes to play and 5 of them a man up, Biloxi had their chance to even the odds. On the penalty kill, Ben Stefanini tied the puck up on the wall for quite some time, drawing a reaction out of Tim Payne for cross-checking that put the Breakers back to 4 on 4. From then on Monroe controlled the tempo. At 16:33, checking back into the game was Tucker Scantlebury with a shorthanded mark to give Monroe a 2 goal lead and take the wind out of the sails of the home squad. The horn sounded with Monroe earning a 3-1 victory, outshooting Biloxi 49-16. The loss marks the first time the Breakers held their opponent to less than 5 goals in a defeat.

Biloxi falls to 5-14-1 through their first 20 games, while Monroe improves to 15-4-2. The two teams will square off for a 9th time this season tomorrow night inside the Monroe Civic Center at 7:05 CST.