Gamblers force decisive Game 5

For the fourth time in four Clark Cup Finals games the away team won as the Green Bay Gamblers jumped to a big lead early and hung on to defeat the Fargo Force 5-3 at the Urban Plains Center tonight.  The Gamblers jumped on the Force with three quick goals to start the first period with a 3-0 lead only 3:31 into the game.

Garrett Allen would jump start the Force on a goal midway through the first period on a feed from Matt Leitner and Johnnie Searfoss to make it 3-1.  Reed Seckel would regain the three goal lead a little more than a minute later on the power play for the Gamblers' fourth goal.  Less than a minute later, the Force answered with a goal by Joe Rehkamp assisted by Chad Demers to make it 4-2.  With 4:27 left in the first, Johnnie Searfoss would add a goal to close within one goal of the Gamblers.  Matt Leitner assisted on the Searfoss goal.  The 4-3 score after the first 20:00 was identical to the score of the previous night's score of 4-3 after 101:38 minutes of play.

The Force and the Gamblers both picked up their defensive game following the 7-goal first period as neither the Force or the Gamblers were able to score a goal until the Gamblers added an empty net tally to finish off the game with a 5-3 win over the Fargo Force.

The good news for the Force is that if the trend continues with the away team winning every game of the Clark Cup Finals, they will come out of Green Bay with their first ever Clark Cup championship.  The bad news for the Force is that they will have to do it without their captain, Chase Grant (according to Steve Johnson on his radio interview with Dan Hammer on 740 The Fan) .  That makes two of the Fargo Force captains out for Game Five as Corey Leivermann also won't play as he is still feeling the effects of the concussion along with a shoulder injury sustained in Game Two of the West Division Finals against Omaha.

I will be doing a live blog for Game Five in Green Bay.  I will be watching the game on the B2 Network and providing updates on the blog.  The blog will go unmoderated as long as we keep it PG-13 : ) - Hope to see everyone there as Force fans can come together on the blog to follow the Force to their Clark Cup victory!

...if anyone is going to Green Bay for Game Five, have fun and represent Fargo and the Force proudly!

Photo by RJ Meyer from USHLimages.com

Game Four Links:
Force lose captain, home ice, and game four
Game Four Recap by USHL
Here is a video from Green Bay's news station:

Green Bay Gazette Article

For Game Three Highlights check it out below:

5 comments:

ndhockey said...

I am pissed that the refs didn't call anything on that hit that injured Grant. They should've at least blown the whistle as he crawled off the ice! That made me mad!!!! Reffing was horrible but the Force didn't help matters in that first period...

Anonymous said...

Aside from Grant, we may be without Coach. What happened?

~hkygrl

HockeyTrend said...

I'm just going to assume it had to do something with the argument that Johnson got into with a fan after the game. They were talking about an argument he had with a GB fan in the stands after the game. I'm just guessing...

I wonder if he will actually be gone for Game 5 or if the USHL will take other action. It would be pretty harsh of them to suspend him for the last game of the Clark Cup Finals...

Anonymous said...

what exactly happened to grant? injury wise..

Anonymous said...

Knee on knee hit

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