Evansville IceMen

The Evansville IceMen got two goals from Aaron Naphan, Jason Gorrie and T.J. Schneider
on Sunday to rout the West Michigan Blizzard 10-5 in Game 4 of the Davidson Cup finals of
the All American Hockey League playoffs.

It was the second consecutive game in which Naphan and Schneider each scored twice.
The duo also did it in Friday night's 7-4 victory over the Blizzard. After losing Game 2 at
Swonder Ice Arena 3-1, allowing the Blizzard to even the best-of-seven series, the IceMen
took care of business on the road by outscoring the Blizzard 17-9 in two road games.

Evansville can now clinch the league championship with a win in Game 5 at Swonder at
7:45 p.m. on Thursday night.

On Sunday, Steve Koich, Jed Johnson, David Croteau and Ryan Ford also scored for the
IceMen. Ford also had four assists.

West Michigan's Mike Thomson had a hat tricks, while Cameron Sault and A.J. Sanders
also scored for West Michigan. Sanders was given the Blizzard's last goal because he was
the closest West Michigan player to the net when Ford inadvertently knocked the puck past
Evansville goaltender John Dorman on an attempted clearance.

The IceMen led 3-2 after the first period and 6-4 at the end of the second period after Ford
scored a short-handed goal on a 1-on-1 in which he did a spin move that got West
Michigan goaltender Nick Niedert leaning the wrong way.

Then to start the third period, Gorrie scored his second goal of the day just 15 seconds into
the period for a 7-4 lead. The rout was on.

The Evansville IceMen wasted no time putting Game 4 in the books with four goals in a
span of six minutes to start the third period on Sunday for a 10-4 lead over the West
Michigan Blizzard in the Davidson Cup finals of the All American Hockey League playoffs.

When the final seconds elapsed Thursday night, Evansville IceMen goaltender John
Dorman was back in the thick of the action. Only this was one time he didn't mind that the
goalmouth in front of him was rather crowded with bodies banging around on the ice.

He and his teammates were just busy celebrating having just won the Davidson Cup finals
of the All American Hockey League playoffs, claiming a 4-3 victory over the West Michigan
Blizzard at Swonder Ice Arena on the strength of a hat trick performance by Ryan Ford.

The win allowed the IceMen to close out the best-of-seven series in just five games.

Dorman, who was named the league's goaltender of the year earlier on Thursday, was a
big part of the series domination. But he quickly gave credit to the defensive front his
teammates put up during their playoff run after finishing third in the league in the regular
season.

"I couldn't be happier with the way my team played in front of me, not just tonight but
through the entire playoffs,” said Dorman.

In what was easily the best game of the series, the IceMen had to sweat out the final
seconds after the Blizzard struck for a pair of goals by league MVP Cameron Sault and
Peter Drikos in the opening five minutes of the third period.

Until then, the IceMen appeared to be cruising to another big win, jumping out to a 4-1
lead after two periods despite being outshot from the opening minutes of the game.

It was the final minutes that had Dorman a bit nervous, though, as West Michigan had three
opportunities in the Evansville end because of icing calls.

“After they scored that third one, I was sweating a little bit, to be sure,” said Dorman. “But
the team just gathered around me and kept putting it to the other end and we pulled it
out.”

When the Blizzard were given one last faceoff in the Evansville end with 7.2 seconds
remaining, Dorman just knew that if he didn’t blink the Davidson Cup would soon be in his
hands.

“When I heard the fans counting down, ‘Three, two, one,’ and the puck was in the corner, I
said, ‘C’mon, end it.’ I just wanted to get my gloves off.”

Ford, who had his hat trick on the IceMen’s opening three goals, ended up as the team’s
leading scorer in the playoffs with eight goals and 10 assists for 18 points.

The hat-trick effort couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I just worked hard and got the bounces tonight,” said Ford. “My teammates made great
plays and I just finished. It’s a great feeling, but it was altogether a team effort.”

And as Evansville coach Jack Collins reminded the crowd, it was what the team had been
determined to do since trailing camp in October.

“We had a goal to win the last game of the season, and we did it,” Collins said during the
trophy presentation.

To finish what they started, Collins called a time out after the Blizzard pulled to within 4-3
with 14:49 remaining.

“Once again it was one of those deals where they cashed in on a couple of mistakes that
we made in our end and they were able to make a game of it,” said Collins, whose team
was coming off a 10-5 win in Muskegon, Mich., in Game 4 on Sunday. “I had to call a
timeout. I wanted to get them to regroup so we didn’t start fussing among ourselves.”

West Michigan, which also got a short-handed goal from Justin Todd in the second period,
outshot Evansville 49-34 in the game.

But it was a short-handed goal by the IceMen’s David Croteau with 3:15 remaining in the
second period that proved to be the difference.

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