Power Plays Sink Sea Wolves, 7-5

After splitting the first two games of the season series Mississippi and Watertown continued the battle of Sea Wolves vs land Wolves each looking for supremacy. 

Despite a number of early power play opportunities Mississippi was able to drive up the shot clock but not the scoreboard as Watertown found the back of the net first on an Andrew Whalen shot that found its way past Ed Coffey at 10:37 of the first period. With less than a second remaining in the period the Wolves buried again as Matteo DiBlasio threw a Joshua Tomasi rebound behind Coffey to give Watertown a 2-0 lead.

The second period got off to more of the same as Whalen scored his second of the night also on the power play at 8:33 to give Watertown the 3-0 lead. The penalties kept coming, but the Sea Wolves finally found a special teams goal as Brendan Hussey skated down the near side boards and blasted one off the glove of Eloi Bouchard that found its way to the back of the net to bring Mississippi within two. Thirty three seconds later Trevor Neumann scored unassisted to give Watertown back a three goal lead. Another minute and seven seconds later Dalton Anderson picked up a loose puck in the slot and fired it past Bouchard to bring the sea Wolves back to 4-2. The power play struck again however as Watertown's Whalen hit the hat trick 17:55 into the second period to give the Wolves the 5-2 edge.

Coach Rich Parent looked for a spark by changing his net minder to start the third, but a carryover power play saw Watertown score again as Neumann earned his second of the night just 27 seconds in and the Wolves Davide Gaeta tallied on an ensuing power play again to give Watertown a 7-2 lead 4:09 into the third period. Mississippi fought back as Brendan Hussey scored 7:55 into the period, Dalton Anderson scored shorthanded at 17:11 and Zac Horn got his first as a Sea Wolf at 19:14 of the third but 7-5 is where it ended up. 

Coffey stopped 19 of 24, while Best stopped 12 of 14 in the loss.