Wasteful Renegades absorb puzzling loss

How can you figure out this season's Richmond Renegades?

One night they knock off the first-place team - Knoxville - in the Southern Professional Hockey League on the road.

The next evening, they come home and lose to the last-place team, Twin City.

That's what has happened the past two nights to the Renegades, who beat Knoxville in overtime on Friday but dropped a 3-2 decision to Twin City last night before 3,708 at the Coliseum.

Richmond outshot the Cyclones 41-29 but only got the puck past Twin City goaltender Kevin Druce twice. Druce finished with 39 saves.

"We had probably 20 or 30 chances to score," said Richmond coach Brian Goudie. "Their goalie played good. We had chance after chance. Had a disallowed goal."

Trailing 3-1 entering the final period, the Renegades had a potential goal by Bill Zalba at 11:39 waved off when referee Stephen Meyer ruled the Richmond forward knocked the puck out of the air and into the goal with his stick above the crossbar.

"From what I seen from the bench, the stick was below the crossbar," Goudie said. "If your stick is below the crossbar, you can knock the puck out of the air. That's how it was when I played."

The Renegades (19-16-1) managed to close the gap to one on a power-play goal by Ryan Busby with 6:02 left and got another opportunity with a man advantage when Druce was charged with knocking the goal off its moorings.

But Richmond, which was only 1 of 7 on the power play, couldn't take advantage of Druce's mistake.

Goudie pulled his goalie, Ryan Person, with 45 seconds to go, but to no avail. Geoff Rollins had the best opportunity, missing just wide with about :35 remaining.

Injury update: Person continues to start between the pipes because of an undisclosed injury to Ryan Scott. Person had 43 saves in Friday's 6-5 OT victory in Knoxville.

"He's still day to day," Goudie said of Scott. "We'll try to make it through the weekend and see how he feels next week."

The Renegades also lost one of their leading scorers, center Trevor Karasiewicz, who injured his knee midway through the final period and didn't return.

Fight night again: In a scenario similar to a game two weeks ago with Knoxville, there were two fights in the first 11 seconds.

Just three seconds after the puck was dropped, Richmond's Nathan Oke and former Renegade Brady Heintz traded blows before Oke threw his foe to the ice.

Eight seconds later, Dennis Sicard landed most of the hard shots in a bout with Jim Jensen.

Visitors strike first: While Richmond may have won the battles on the ice, Twin City gained the early momentum when Marc Lefebvre scored on a rebound at :26 after Person appeared to stop the initial attempt.

Then the Cyclones (14-18-3) capitalized on a power play to make it 2-0. Another ex-Renegade, Ben Manny, was in the right spot out front to tap in a loose puck at 4:48.

Back in the game: Richmond sliced its deficit in half when Mike O'Sullivan gathered in a pass from Zalba and skated in close to beat Druce with a backhander 6:55 into the second frame.

A minute earlier, Beau McLaughlin had been denied on a breakaway by Druce.

The Cyclones, however, regained their two-goal advantage with another power-play score, this one by Steve Obelnicki with six minutes left in the period.

Twin City ------------------------- 2

0 - 3
Richmond ------------------------- 0

1 - 2

First period - 1, Twin City, Lefebvre 10 (Hustead), :26. 2, Twin City, Manny 16 (Swartzentruber, Tutalo), 4:48 (pp). Penalties - Heintz, TC, major (fighting), :03; Oke, Rich, major (fighting), :03; Jensen, TC, major (fighting), :11; Sicard, Rich, major (fighting), :11; Joy, Rich (roughing), 2:57; Lefebvre, TC (hooking), 5:29; Smith, TC (cross-checking), 11:26; Zalba, Rich (slashing), 13:02; Manny, TC (slashing), 13:02; Wagner, TC (hooking), 14:03.

Second period - 3, Richmond, O'Sullivan 3 (Zalba, Price), 6:55. 4, Twin City, Obelnicki 5 (Hustead, Tutalo), 14:00 (pp). Penalties - Hustead, TC (interference), 9:48; Sicard, Rich (hooking), 13:28; Richard, TC (hooking), 15:46.

Third period - 5, Richmond, Busby 12 (Price, Vandermeer), 13:58 (pp). Penalties - Piro, TC (holding), 12:13; Druce, TC (delay of game), 15:16.

Shots on goal - Twin City 13-10-6--29; Richmond 11-17-13--41. Power-play opportunities - Twin City 2 of 2, Richmond 1 of 7. Goalies - Twin City: Druce 8-6-1 (41 shots-39 saves), Richmond: Person 1-2-0 (29-26). Referee: Stephen Meyer. A - 3,708.