Second Period Collapse Costs the Coyotes!

Take away the middle period and the Osoyoos Coyotes didn’t play a bad hockey game.  However, allowing four unanswered goals in that timeframe contributed greatly to an 8-3 loss to the Posse, Friday night in Princeton.

It took the Posse just over three minutes to go up 2-0, which increased to 3-0 by the halfway point of the opening period.

Osoyoos struck twice quickly in only 2:19 to cut the deficit to 3-2, with Spencer Fleck and Dexter Materi on the powerplay doing the damage.

Princeton added one more to take a 4-2 cushion into the intermission. 

The roof caved in during an undisciplined second period as the Posse tallied four times in just over five minutes to build an insurmountable lead, including a pair of man advantage markers in a 20 minute span that frankly was difficult to watch.

Dexter Materi’s second powerplay effort in the third rounded out the scoring.  Kyle Cyr added two assists.

Russell Newman allowed eight goals on 47 shots in his Coyotes goaltending debut.  That certainly doesn’t sound like a very good outing, but he did make some notable saves and could have received better defensive support.  Princeton held an overall 47-40 edge in that department.

With 16 regular season games yet to play, Osoyoos remains 12 points back of Merritt for the Bill Ohlhausen Division’s final playoff spot.  Another daunting task presents itself on Saturday night (Jan. 4th) at 7:00, a visit from the Revelstoke Grizzlies, who the Coyotes haven’t beaten in their past seven attempts, dating back to October of 2021.