I'm almost afraid to go to a Riverhounds game anymore. I'm afraid of getting my hopes up to high and then be disappointed. I keep thinking to myself, "it's only a game, the sun will still come up tomorrow if they lose."
They won again last night, over the Toronto Lynx 1 - 0, keeping the playoff hopes alive and stopping the coming of an eternal night. The victory gives them 43 points, and temporarily pulls them within two points of the Rochester Rhino's - who play Saturday night at home against a hapless Atlanta side.
The win came off a penalty kick in the 56th minute of play. Thiago Martins scored his 17th goal of the season by beating Theo Zagar with a rocket to the high side of the net.
Pittsburgh was the better team on paper, but didn't really look like the better team on the field. The Lynx were playing for the draw from the opening whistle and nearly pulled it off. Having a weather delay of nearly an hour didn't hurt the Lynx at all. It could have spelled disaster for the Hounds playoff hopes however.
According to the leagues' rules, if a game is suspended after one half has been played for more than an hour that game is completed. Whatever the score is at that time becomes official. If the game was restarted and then suspended again, it is a complete game. With the score tied 0 - 0 at the half, it would have been the end of the Riverhounds season.
Although the sky to the South of Bethel Park looked ominous at times, the lighting and rain did not come into play.
Justin Evans said that after the delay, the team "(wanted) to go at them. Let's get the goal in the first five, ten minutes. I think the goal came after eleven minutes, so we did what we wanted to do."
Coach Ricky Iribarren however didn't seem that pleased. "It wasn't a good game, but we got three points."
Although Pittsburgh outshot Toronto 9 - 1 in the first half, with Lynx netminder Theo Zagar making 7 saves, not all of those shots were of great quality.
A Martins header in the sixth minute of play was right into the waiting arms of Zagar. Thiago would hit the crossbar in the 12th minute.
In the tenth minute, Pittsburgh got a break when the assistant referee missed an offside call, Aleksey Korol could have possibly one timed it at Zagar but decided to dribble it in and got stripped of the ball by defender Adrian Serioux.
The best attempt in the match was in the 20th minute. Only some great goaltending by Theo Zagar kept the ball out of the net. Martins beat his defender and found himself one on one with Zagar. The goalie rushed out of the net some thirty yards to force Martins shot; he then quickly scrambled back to get a hand on the lob shot by Evans.
The rest of the first half was uneventful. Then came the delay.
In the 55th minute, Thiago Martins went up in the air to control a cross. He was blindsided by defenseman Jan Veenhof in the box. Referee Tony Crush pointed to the spot and it was all over.
For the rest of the game, Pittsburgh packed the defense in.
One heart attack moment occurred in the 75th minute. Sebastian Barclay nearly tied it up. He took on three Hounds in the box and with some fancy footwork was able to get them to commit; Randy Dedini fell to his knees to block the shot. Barclay went high.
PING! Off the crossbar.
Attendance was 1975.
