St. Louis Bandits in Tough Series Against Michigan

Despite battling back from a 2-0 deficit with a two-goal outburst early in the third period, the St. Louis Bandits dropped a 3-2 decision to the Michigan Warriors in Game 2 of the second round in the North American Hockey League playoffs.

Bandits forward and Kirkwood graduate Stephen Bopp was scoreless in Game 2, but he did score the game-winning goal in Thursday’s 2-0 win over Michigan.

The Bandits’ loss to Michigan was in complete contrast to that victory on Thursday evening, according to St. Louis head coach Jeff Brown.

“Michigan came out firing tonight and they deserved the win,” Brown said. “Their guys were going and we just couldn’t match their intensity, except for about five minutes at the start of the third period.”

The win for Michigan evens the series at 1-1 as the Warriors head back to Flint for Games 3 and 4 at Perani Arena.

“We were in a desperate mode down 1-0 against a team like St. Louis, because they’re a great hockey team,” Michigan head coach Moe Mantha said. “I was telling our guys to be ready for the third period because this is too good of a team to think that this period is not going to be the difference in the game. But we found a way to score that third goal and then hold them off.”

The Warriors jumped out to a 1-0 lead 5:34 into the second period as Scott Henegar scored on a power play with Ryan Green and Andrew Kolb recording the assists. Henegar scored again on a power play at 12:05 in the second period with Kolb and Green garnering the assists.

St. Louis would finally get onto the scoreboard just 1:54 into the third period on an unassisted goal by Evan Stibbard.

“Well (Isak), Quakenbush was forcing their defense really hard and he had good pressure on them,” Stibbard said. “Their defenseman coughed up the puck in the middle and I just picked it off and put it in the net.”

The Bandits’ Ryan Stouffer tied the game at 2 with the assists coming from Chris Ciotti and Joe Kalisz just 3:11 into the third period.

“I had just come right off the bench,” Stouffer said. “I skated hard into the zone and went back door and Ciotti had a one-on-one with the guy coming out of the back corner and he just slid it over and I put it in the net.”

Michigan’s Rob Mantha scored the game-winning goal for the Warriors at 11:17 into the third period with Chris Eckler and Bobby Bodette nabbing the assists.

In addition to Bopp, Patrick Sheehan, Tucker Long and Nick Carey are also from the St. Louis metropolitan area.

“They’re all leaders on our team and they’ve been good for us and it’s nice to get a little St. Louis flavor on our team,” Brown said. “We try every year to get as many St. Louis guys as we can and it’s frustrating at times because we lose guys to the USHL, but if the St. Louis kids are good enough we would love to get as many as we could get.”

The Bandits are back in action on the road this Friday and Saturday evening as they take on the Warriors at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 7 p.m. on Saturday.