Play against Sabres is ugly, but effective

In 1983, the phrase “Winning Ugly” was coined to describe the successful run of the Chicago White Sox.

Even though the members of Jaguar Mite #2 were far from being born back then, they took a page from the White Sox playbook on Wednesday evening in an 8-2 regular-season-closing victory over the Sabres.

In fact, things were so ugly early on that Coach Bob Ambroffi used his lone timeout just 4:00 into the second period, with the Jaguars leading 1-0. It was a moment of frustration he admitted later that he regretted briefly when, after the Sabres scored with 9:31 remaining in the third period to cut the Jaguar lead to just 3-2, he realized he no longer had a timeout at his disposal.

While the timeout may have helped to get the minds of the Jaguar players back on the task at hand, it was that Sabres’ goal that really seemed to give Mite #2 the sense of urgency it seemed to lack in the early going. With the urgency back in their game, the Jaguars quickly made it clear that their unbeaten streak in Northern Illinois Hockey League play would indeed be extended to nine games.

The win, which brought their record to 7-0-2 in their last nine games in the White Tier of the Silver B Level of the Mite Division of NIHL, gave the Jaguars an overall season record of 8-4-2 and solidified their hold on third place in the tier – and a first-round playoff contest against this same Sabres.

The ugly start to the Jaguars’ play was even depicted in the types of goals they scored in the early going.

The Jaguars got on the scoreboard first when, with 8:13 to play in the opening stanza, a shot off the stick of Jarrett Goodwin somehow managed to trickle past the Sabres’ goalie and just over the goal line. The goal, which was not apparent until the referee signaled the score, was unassisted.

The tenacious Sabres held the Jaguars at bay for the remainder of the first period and through the first several minutes of the second, prompting Ambroffi to call the early timeout. A minute later, Trevor Hudak responded to the pep talk with the Jaguars’ second ugly goal of the game.

In this instance, Hudak played the puck from behind the Sabres’ net and managed – perhaps unintentionally – to bounce a shot off the rear of the Sabres’ goaltender and into the net to double the Jaguars lead to 2.

Hudak scored in a slightly more convincing fashion with 2:00 to play in the period, as he convincing fired a shot past the netminder from between the hash marks. Goodwin received credit of assisting the goal, which made the score 3-0.

A strong offensive play by the Sabres’ Ian Gall, despite the pestering defense of the Jaguars’ Dylan Graziano, kept the stanza from closing with that score. With Graziano whacking at his stick all the way through the Jaguars’ defensive zone, Gall still managed to fire a shot just wide of the outstretched glove of goalie Luke Brzezinski and into the back of the net to put the Sabres on the board. Ryan Burk received credit for the assist.

The Sabres made the score 3-2 – and made Jaguar’s Coach Ambroffi regret his early timeout call – when Nicholas Niecikowski found the net after a flurry of activity in front of Brzezinski. Nicholas Soldan recorded the assist.

It was indeed the wakeup call the Jaguars needed.

And wake up they did, starting with Blake Brenczewski, who tallied the first insurance goal for the visitors with 8:14 to play to stretch the lead to 4-2. The Jaguars then proceeded to score approximately once a minute for the next four minutes, bringing the score to the final 8-2 margin.

Lukas Bomba scored on an assist from Goodwin at the 7:25 mark, and 1:02 later, they switched roles, with Goodwin converting a Bomba assist to make the score 6-2. With 5:18 to play, Brenczewski scored his second unassisted goal of the game.

Ryan Louthan closed out the scoring in the game with his own unassisted goal with 3:43 to play.

With the regular season concluded, the Jaguars will tune up for their playoff run by participating in the Chi-Town Cup Tournament in West Dundee this coming weekend, Feb. 18-20. They will open the playoffs by hosting the Sabres at Inwood sometime between Feb. 20 and 28, with an eye toward advancing to second- and third-round play the first weekend in March at Rocket Ice.