FARGO – The Fargo Force ended 2014 with a bang thanks to a redirect off the stick of Zach Yon with 58 seconds remaining in overtime. Yon’s goal gave the Force a 2-1 win over Des Moines in the United States Hockey League and sent the 3,698 at Scheels Arena into 2015 happy.
Yon wasn’t the only hero, as Mikey Eyssimont’s power-play goal with 2 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in regulation sent the game to overtime and Robbie Beydoun’s 43 saves kept the Force alive.
“It felt like it took the whole year to tie the game up,” Fargo coach John Marks said. “We didn’t have a very good start. I was disappointed with the way we played in the first period, but we got better and better as the game went on. It’s a 60-minute game.”
Des Moines had Fargo’s number. The Buccaneers had beaten the Force twice and were less than three minutes away from getting a third Wednesday. The Buccaneers had outshot, outplayed, outhustled and outskated the Force.
Then, the Buccaneers decided to wake the Force up. Des Moines right winger Mark Petaccio planted Force forward Shane McMahan into the boards right by the Force bench.
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Petaccio was given a double minor and ejected from the game.
“Shane took a nasty hit,” Eyssimont said. “We were fired up after that. We had to hold a couple guys back to make sure we had the power play, so it fired us up on the bench and the ice. It was a momentum changer. Bad penalty for them to take there.”
It took just 38 seconds after the hit for Fargo (13-10-4) to capitalize when Mitch Slattery found a seam in the defense and hit Eyssimont’s stick with nothing but a wide-open goal in front of him.
“It’s the last half of the season, so every minute counts and every game gets more and more important,” Eyssimont said. “Every game is harder and harder to win. To win against a team like Des Moines, a team that was right above us in the standings, is big. Every minute counts.”
With 58 seconds to go in overtime, Force defenseman Matt McArdle fired on net from the point and Yon was there to redirect it in for the win.
“This is huge,” Yon said. “We’ve been up and down lately. I think a win like this, especially against a team right above us, should be a kick-start. The standings are so close right now, so it would be really nice to get on a roll.”
The top four teams in each conference make the playoffs in the USHL and currently three teams – Omaha, Fargo and Des Moines – are tied with 30 points at the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference with Sioux Falls in the No. 3 spot with 31 points.
The Force were 2:23 away from entering 2015 with a three-game losing streak. Yon and Eyssimont had other plans.
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“That’s a big win,” Marks said. “We’re so close in the standings that every two points is so big. We lost to them twice before, so it’s a confidence builder for the next time we play them.”
FIRST PERIOD: 1, DM, Schueneman (Dmowski), 12:06.
SECOND PERIOD: no scoring.
THIRD PERIOD: 2, F, Eyssimont (Slattery, Baudry), 17:37 (pp).
OVERTIME: 3, F, Yon (McArdle, Baudry), 4:02.
SAVES: DM, Ruck 12-12-10-1–35. F, Beydoun 15-15-12-1–43
A: 3,698
