Gades flip switch on power play

Stop trying to win a beauty contest.

That basically was the between-periods message Richmond Renegades coach Brian Goudie delivered to his team about its power-play opportunities.

Richmond had plenty last night. They scored on just enough - three - and rebounded from 3-1 deficit to take a 5-3 victory over Twin City at the Coliseum.

Playing their third game in three nights, the Renegades got a pair of goals from Geoff Rollins and scored three times in the third period to secure their third straight win and move to .500 (8-8).

Referee Seth Ferguson blew his whistle so much that power plays were more common than both teams being full strength. Richmond had 17 power plays, including five with a two-man advantage. Twin City had 10.

The Renegades went into the game leading the Southern Professional Hockey League in power-play success rate (22 percent) but were frustrated in the first two periods. Richmond took just 15 shots the first two periods. That included 13 power plays.

"We weren't shooting the puck enough," said Rollins, who has five goals since joining the Renegades three games ago. "We were trying to be too pretty instead of just working hard and keeping it simple. We were trying to complicate things too much."

With Richmond on the power play to start the third period, Rollins deflected a feed from Nathan Oke to tie the game at 3-3 just 15 seconds into the period.

Matt Withers redirected Nick Pernula's shot past Twin City goaltender Terry Dunbar at 6:17, giving the Renegades a 4-3 lead. Ryan Busby outhustled a defender and gave Beau McLaughlin a beautiful pass for a short-handed goal at 14:52 to end the scoring.

"We were just trying to get too fancy," Goudie said. "Guys were trying to go through the seams instead of getting the puck on net and crashing for rebounds."

A little misconduct: Twin City's Paul Falco took a big hit from Jozef Kubaliak in the first period and was unable to get up. No penalty was called, and Falco, while on his hands and knees on the ice, had some words for Ferguson. Ferguson hit Falco with a misconduct penalty.

After Falco was helped to the locker room and the teams were waiting for the faceoff, Withers and the Cyclones' Ryan Bartle made no secret they were going to start beating on each other. Finally, they dropped the gloves and engaged in a long fight. After going into the penalty box, Bartle came back out and did some yapping, earning a misconduct.

Can I borrow yours? Dunbar lost his goalie stick during one Renegades flurry. He was without his big blade for a few seconds before defenseman Russell Smith handed his smaller stick to Dunbar. Dunbar ended the sequence by snagging a shot with his glove.

In an emergency . . . : Goaltender Ryan Senft is scheduled to have a magnetic resonance imaging test tomorrow on his right knee. Senft injured the knee during Friday's 10-4 win over Fayetteville. He was on crutches and wearing a brace last night.

Bryce Luker started in net last night and was shaky early on some rebounds before settling down and making some nice saves late. Adam Dekker was brought in as an emergency goalie.

Up next: Richmond returns to the Coliseum on Friday to play Columbus at 7:35.

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

0 - 3
Richmond ------------------------- 1

3 - 5

First Period - 1, Twin City, Manny 2 (Sirois, Smith), 1:35. 2, Twin City, Sirois 11 (Hustead, Wagner), 10:15. 3, Rollins 4, Rich (Oke, Karasiewicz), 16:05 (pp). Penalties - Bartle, TC (hooking), 3:37; Sbrocchi, TC (hooking), 4:36; Joy, Rich (interference), 6:35; Falco, TC, misconduct, 9:33; Withers, Rich major (fighting); 9:33; Bartle, TC major-misconduct (fighting), 9:33; Manny, TC (holding), 13:02; Swartzentruber, TC (holding), 14:50; Manny, TC (delay of game), 15:27; Melnyk, TC (hooking), 16:32; Halverson, Rich (holding), 17:12; McLaughlin, Rich (holding), 20:00.

Second Period - 4, Twin City, Lefebvre 3 (Heintz), 2:37. 5, Richmond, Karasiewicz 6 (Pernula, Oke), 18:00 (pp). Penalties - Joy, Rich (interference), 3:08; Busby, Rich (hooking), 4:33; Heintz, TC (hooking), 6:23; Rollins, Rich (hooking), 7:44; Hustead, TC (slashing), 10:37; Bartle, TC (cross-checking), 11:34; Sbrocchi, TC (high-sticking), 12:54; Smith, TC (delay of game), 15:11; Wagner, TC (interference), 17:39; Richard, TC (tripping), 18:16.

Third Period - 6, Richmond, Rollins 5 (Oke, Karasiewicz), 0:15 (pp). 7, Richmond, Withers 1 (Pernula, Price), 6:17. 8, Richmond, McLaughlin 4 (Busby), 14:52 (sh). Penalties - Twin City bench, 0:26; Halverson, Rich (roughing), 1:30; Manny, TC (roughing), 1:30; Hustead, TC (holding the stick), 17:24; Twin City bench, 6:17; Oke, Rich (tripping), 8:01; Manny, TC (unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:01; Oke, Rich (holding), 10:45; Halverson, Rich (tripping), 11:48; Lyke, Rich (high-sticking), 14:14; Wagner, TC (hooking), 16:21; Pernula, Rich (hooking), 18:16.

Shots on goal - Twin City 11-12-12 - 35. Richmond 9-8-12 - 29. Power-play opportunities - Twin City 0 of 10; Richmond 3 of 17. Goaltenders - Twin City: Dunbar 2-8-1 (29-24 saves); Richmond: Luker 1-1-0 (35-32). Referee: Seth Ferguson. A - 3,851.