Jokers Goal Scoring Woes Result in Two Losses

The Jokers of Doom continue to struggle mightily to find the back of the net, resulting in the team dropping it’s last two games 3-2 and 3-1 to the Tomahawks and Hockey Balboa after opening the season with a 3-2 OT win.

In the Tomahawks game, as per the norm the Jokers fell behind early and were down 2-0 after the first period. They battled back to score the next 2 goals, Ken Herren with the lone goal scored in the second period on a power play and then just 1:43 into the third Frank Melillo tied it up. In the end the Tomahawks would break the tie mid way through the third period as Steve Lubinsky scooped a loose ball between the circles and his quick wrist shot found the 5 hole on goalie Josh Berrelli who was filling in for Matt Dutily and stopped 26 of 29 shots.

In the game versus Hockey Balboa, Dutily was back in net and the Jokers were hoping to find paydirt more often but it just wasn’t to be. Once again, they found themselves down early as Balboa would score on a long shot in the first period which ended with Jokers sown by a goal. Although holding the offensive zone longer than Balboa the second period yielded no goals and another goal against for a 2-0 deficit heading the the third period. In the final frame, the Jokers would finally cash in as Tyler Salkins would tap in a rebound off a shot from Herren. The same theme would hold though as the Balboan’s cashed in another goal midway through the third and hung on for the 3-1 victory. Goalie Matt Dutily stopped 29 of 32 shots. No doubt captain Jim Brunetti will be devising new strategies to deploy in the next contest on Sunday night versus the 3-0 division leading Vipers.

 

Notes: Jokers were 1-6 on the power play in the Tomahawks game… 37 shots for versus Tomahawks is the highest total in several seasons… 0 power plays and only 2 matching penalties in second game versus Hockey Balboa… Jim Salkins was a scratch in game 1 and Garrett Salkins was a scratch in game 2… Forward Jeff Herget was signed as a per game player and debuted vs Balboa… Despite the losses Jokers won the shots on goal in both games 37-29 and 33-32 which they hadn’t done all of last season.