Mates rally around fallen leader

John Korobanik, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, February 23
 
 

EDMONTON - Three power-play goals in the first quarter powered the Edmonton Drillers to a comfortable 4-0 lead and allowed the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League team to get past their own letdowns and cruise to a 10-5 victory over the Saskatoon Accelerators Friday.

A "brutal tackle" 16 seconds into the game sent Edmonton's offensive leader, Nikola Vignjevic, to the dressing room with an ankle injury that could have devastated the Drillers.

Instead they responded with two goals, on the ensuing power play - Phil Pavicic at 25 seconds and Todd Rattee at 2:03.

"He's been leading our team all season and to have that happen ... a lot of inexperienced guys could have looked at that and thought, we just lost our most valuable player, and let that play in their mindset," said Edmonton coach Pasquale Deluca. "It was a brutal tackle and (assistant coach) Thomasz (Janas) and I had to tell the guys, OK, lets go win this for him."

The Drillers improved their record to 5-1 by jumping into the 4-0 lead and totally shutting down Saskatoon's offence for the first 15 minutes.

"It was nice to start slowly," said Edmonton goalkeeper Ollie Brkin, who faced only two shots in the first quarter and was playing for the first time in a month because of a knee injury.

Saskatoon scored on a deflection late in the quarter on their second shot.

"We played fairly well defensively," said Brkin, who had to make some key saves in the second half to ensure Saskatoon didn't get enough momentum to get back into the game.

"When you get up (4-0) the offence sometimes sits back and you lose your attack," he said. "In the second quarter that's exactly what happened."

Deluca said his club got "complacent" in the second and fourth quarters.

"The guys were looking at the scoreboard, thinking it's in the bag," he said. "Ollie kept us in there at times. Even though the score was 10-5, it could have been the other way if not for Ollie."

Despite a number of excellent scoring chances, Saskatoon could manage just one goal in each of the first three quarters and had two in the fourth after Edmonton had a 10-3 advantage.

Chris Lemire led the scoring with three goals in the second half while Rattee had a pair and Pavicic, Sean Myskiw, Angelo Sestito, Waldo Dutra and Martin Dugas added singles.

Ronny Torres, Sinisa Matic, Kevin Murphy and Jay Tomchuk replied for the Accelerators.

The Drillers are home next Friday for a doubleheader against Winnipeg.