Knowing becomes doing as Mite #2 salvages 2-2 tie vs. Jets

They knew it could be done.

After all, the Chicago Bulldogs had done it to them one game before.

Knowing and doing, however, are often two different things.

On Sunday morning, Feb. 12, however, there was no distinction for Jaguar Mite #2 between knowing it is possible to come back from a one-goal deficit with less than a minute to play (and a two-goal deficit overall) and doing it against the Chicago Jets .

Despite being down 2-0 going into the third period – and 2-1 with 1:00 appearing on the clock near the ice at Johnny’s Ice House West – the Jaguars skated off the ice after the final buzzer sounded with a 2-2 tie in the books, bringing to eight games their unbeaten streak in Northern Illinois Hockey League play.

For the Chicago Jets, however, a tie was good enough to clinch a second-place finish in the White Tier of the Silver B Level of the Mite Division, which comes with a first-round playoff bye. The point gave the Jets 19 on the season, one ahead of where the Jaguars will sit should they beat the Sabres in their regular-season finale on Wednesday night, Feb. 15.

Dropping to third place means the Jaguars will have to play a first-round game in the NIHL Wolves Cup playoffs, hosting the Sabres at Inwood in a yet-to-be-scheduled game that must by played between Monday, Feb. 20, and Tuesday, Feb. 28.

The Chicago Bulldogs also received a playoff bye, garnering 20 points during the season and securing first-place in the tier.

The Jaguars and the Jets played Sunday’s game as if it were the important game that it was. The teams battled defensively throughout the contest, closing the first period knotted in a 0-0 tie.

The Jets finally lit up the scoreboard with 8:18 to play in the second, as Alex Laverty got behind the defense and scored on assists from Joey Giunta and Mario Scalise. A little more than three minutes later, at the 4:41 mark of the middle period, the Jets stretched the lead to 2-0 on a Tyler Pan goal. Assists went to Scalise and Sean Doyle, who had led the Jets’ offense each time the two teams had previously met this season.

Just shy of 1:30 into the third period, the Jaguars finally solved the Jets’ goaltender, with Black Brenczewski converting on a Jarrett Goodwin pass to cut the Jet lead to 2-1. And there the score stayed for more than nine minutes.

After using his timeout and with the final seconds ticking off the clock, Coach Bob Ambroffi pulled goaltender Luke Brzezinski off the ice in favor of a sixth attacker. The Jaguars dodged a bullet when a Jets’ shot from the blue line drifted just wide of the empty net, but the Jets could not dodge a bullet off the stick of Ryan Louthan.

With just :33 left to play, Louthan found the back of the net, on an assist from Nate Guseman, to know the score at 2-2.

The scenario was all-too-familiar to the Jaguars. In their previous game, the Jaguars were the team that saw a two-goal lead slip away and result in a 2-2 tie because of a goal scored by a team defending an empty net and pushing full force in the closing seconds trying to tally the equalizer.

The Jaguars will finish the regular season with a 6:30 game Wednesday evening, Feb. 15, against the hosting Sabres. They will then tune up for the NIHL Wolves Cup playoffs by competing in the Chi-Town Cup tournament in West Dundee from Feb. 18-20, during which they will meet the St. Jude Knights, who during a tournament in January became the only team to have beaten Jaguar Mite #2 since early December 2011.