There’s something different about you

Jaguars suffer 3-0 loss at hands of Vikings

At the start of their game Tuesday night, Coach Rob Sterioti had Jaguar Squirt #2 try something different.

Something, as it turns out, was also different at the end of the game.

In exact opposite fashion to the season-opening victory, the Jaguars dropped a 3-0 decision to Vikings #2 on the Championship Rink at Arctic Ice in Orland Park. The loss dropped the Jaguars, who had opened Saturday with a 3-0 win over the Irish, to 1-1-0 in seeding round play in the Red Tier of the Silver Level in the Squirt Division of the Northern Illinois Hockey League.

Prior to the game, Sterioti had instructed his players to set up during the first period a bit differently than they usually would. The hope, Sterioti said, was to tire out the Vikings and, effectively, shorten the game to two periods, allowing the Jaguars to have more stamina at the end of the contest.

The plan, however, of having just one forward give chase in the offensive zone, while the other forwards remained at the blue line and the defense set up shop at the center line, served to minimize the Jaguars’ offensive chances. It did not, however, minimize the Vikings’ offensive chances as much as Sterioti had hoped.

Instead, by the time the first period expired and the Jaguars were ready to resume their normal offensive program, the visitors were trailing 2-0. The Vikings had jumped to the early lead with a goal approximately halfway through the opening stanza off the stick of Tyler Derickson. Derickson was assisted by Matthew Cox, who also assisted on the Vikings’ second goal. That tally was scored by Brendan Joy with less than a minute to play in the period.

Once the Jaguars returned to their standard three-man rush, with offensive support from the defensive specialists on the ice, they seemed to have trouble getting back on track and mounted only a few strong offensive charges.  Nevertheless, the Jaguars played the Vikings nearly even through the final 22 minutes

The lone tally in the final two periods came with 1:33 to play in the middle stanza, when the Viking’s Vinny Felice converted on an assist from Brett Rudny. The goal lifted the margin to three, where it would remain until the final buzzer sounded.

While no official saves totals were tallied, Kenny Zschach posted another strong performance between the pipes for the Jaguars.

Jaguars Squirt #2 will next be in action at 2:20 p.m. EDT Friday afternoon, when they open play in the South Bend Cup tournament in South Bend, Ind.