Jackson scores three unanswered to knock off Capitals

“It seemed like they were more hungry than us,” Capitals captain Aaron Gallant said. “We kind of beat our heads against the wall a bit. Stuff happens.”

From the opening puck drop, Jackson had the faster legs. The Moose got off to a fast-paced start, outshooting Cheyenne 7-0 in the opening eight minutes of the game. Jackson had four grade-A scoring chances from inside the low slot, but Capitals goaltender Isaak Erickson turned each one away to keep the game scoreless. The Capitals offense, meanwhile, did not record a shot until just past the eight-minute mark of the first period.

Jackson continued to pressure in the first period, generating several high-danger chances. With five and a half minutes left in the opening frame, the Moose were finally able to break the dam. Nick Korpi came down the right wing and fired a shot past the outstretched leg of Erickson and into the back of the net to open the scoring. With 32 seconds left, Hayes Millham scored his first of the game to give Jackson a two-goal lead.

The Capitals had one last chance before the horn to cut into the lead, but were unsuccessful. Tyler Box fed a cross-crease pass to Tyler McCulloch, but Moose goaltender Tommy Caruso made the save by sliding right-to-left to deny McCulloch with the pad.

Just before the period ended, Moose captain Jack Jenkins was called for a kneeing penalty. The penalty carried over to the second period, and the Capitals made them pay. With just over a minute into the frame, Kyler Collins rifled a wrist shot from the blue line that went past the glove of Caruso and into the back of the net.

The goal seemed to provide a bit of a spark for the Capitals, and just more than 11 minutes later, Noah Roberts scored on a rebound in front of the net to tie the game at two.

But three minutes later, Cheyenne became the victim of bad puck luck. The puck was sent out of the Jackson zone and back towards Erickson, where it hopped the defenseman’s stick and landed right on the tape of Stewart Sullivan. Sullivan made no mistake with the shot, chipping it over the shoulder of Erickson to give Jackson a 3-2 lead.

“Whenever a team gets the answer right away, that shifts momentum back the other way” Capitals coach Patrick Cunningham said. “At the end of the day, it was hard for us to rebound for that.”

Jackson used the momentum from Sullivan’s goal to completely take over the rest of the game. Entering the third period, Millham and Carter Johnson added insurance goals to give the Moose a 5-2 lead with more than 12 minutes remaining. They continued to put their foot on the gas and made life difficult for Cheyenne at both ends of the ice, holding on to seal the victory.

The main issue for Cheyenne in the game was its inability to exit the zone cleanly. From the opening jump, Jackson hemmed the Capitals into their own zone for a majority of the time. Anytime the Capitals would try to break the puck out, it would get knocked down at the blue line or intercepted and fed right back down.

“It was missed execution for sure,” Cunningham said. “We got tired, fatigued, and it is really hard to get the puck out and shift the momentum in our way.”

The lone bright spot of the game for Cheyenne was its goaltender. Erickson stood on his head for the first two periods to give Cheyenne hope. Even after allowing two goals in the opening minutes of the third period, Erickson did not quit and continued to make solid saves throughout. He tallied 52 saves on 57 shots and was the only reason Cheyenne was in the game for as long as it was.

“He played a fantastic game,” Gallant said. “I’m really proud of the way he came out and competed. If it wasn’t for him, that game would have been a lot worse.”