[ ScareCrows: Miller, Fabian lead Topeka to 9-3 victory over Sioux
Larry Freeze Capital-Journal
ScareCrows: Miller, Fabian lead Topeka to 9-3 victory over Sioux City
ScareCrows wrap
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Nick Miller, a 6-foot-2, 203-pound forward, scored two goals.
UP NEXT
Topeka plays at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Omaha, Neb., against River City.
ONLINE
Go to cjonline.com for more coverage of the Topeka ScareCrows, including postgame interviews.
Nick Miller
By Larry Freeze
The Capital-Journal
Playing their third game in three days Sunday at Landon Arena, the Topeka ScareCrows’ primary objective simply was to survive. They did that and then some.
Topeka bounced back from a Friday loss to Lincoln and a Saturday shootout loss by hammering the Sioux City Musketeers, 9-3, less than 24 hours after the two teams played beyond overtime in Iowa.
The onslaught, which tied the team record for goals in a game, was sparked by Nick Miller and Erik Fabian, who each scored two goals. Luke Erickson added a goal and two assists to deny the defending Clark Cup playoff champions.
“It felt good to finally put one away,” Miller said of his first goal, which gave Topeka a 3-1 lead early in the second period. “I was happy with the way I played and the way the team played.”
Miller’s goal was followed by Erickson’s power play marker and tallies from Wade Harstad and Adam Bartholomay in a short-handed situation, which gave the Crows a 6-3 lead after two periods.
Especially pleasing to ScareCrows coach Bliss Littler was how his team came out in the third period and continued to stay on the offensive.
Fabian began things at the 11-second mark, beating former Crow goalie Eric Aarnio. After Miller’s second goal at 7:16, Fabian scored again on a blast from the point for Topeka’s ninth score.
Although his name wasn’t on the scoresheet, Littler thanked trainer and strength coach Mike Muir for helping the team improve to 3-0 on Sundays.
“We’ve had a lot of success on Sunday afternoons,” Littler said. “And a lot of that credit goes to our strength coach.
“We tried to play four lines all weekend, so we’d have some legs on Sunday.”
The players knew it was imperative to put a game in the win column this weekend and remain in the seventh overall spot in the standings. And they did just that.
“Coach really wanted to win this one today after losing (Saturday) night,” Miller said. “We came back hard today and made sure they didn’t have a chance.”
Ryan Miller and Slavomir Tomko scored Topeka’s first two goals to get the offense rolling.
The ScareCrows will wrap up the pre-holiday portion of its schedule at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Omaha, Neb., against River City.
Sioux City (15-8-1)….1….2….0….—….3
Topeka (12-9-3)……..2….4….3….—….9
First period — 1. Topeka, R. Miller 9 (Vesely, Rankin), 10:15; 2. Topeka, Tomko 3 (Erickson), 15:53; 3. Sioux City, Femenella 1 (Houseman, Hartman), 19:12.
Penalties — Rankin, Topeka (interference), :26; Collins, Sioux City (cross-checking), 8:10; Kroll, Sioux City (hooking), 10:29; Williams, Topeka (cross-checking), 14:48; Goeckner-Zoeller, Sioux City (hooking), 14:55.
Second period — 4. Topeka, N. Miller 2, 2:35; 5. Topeka, Erickson 11 (Tomko, Buchholz), 6:02 (pp); 6. Topeka, Harstad 4 (R. Miller, Bartholomay), 6:52; 7. Sioux City Bales 5, 7:46; 8. Topeka, Bartholomay 6, 14:01 (sh); 9. Sioux City, Houseman 8, 17:04.
Penalties — Houseman, Sioux City (roughing), 5:29; Greaves, Sioux City (delay of game), 6:02; Fabian, Topeka (delay of game), 6:02; Platisha, Topeka (interference), 12:05.
Third period — 10. Topeka, Fabian 8 (Erickson, Angell), 0:11; 11. Topeka, N. Miller 3 (Pernula, Cummings), 7:16; 12. Topeka, Fabian 9 (Unger, Peterson), 12:05.
Penalties — Angell, Topeka (hooking), 8:52; Tomko, Topeka (hooking), 16:16; Curry, Sioux City (slashing); 16:45.
Shots on goal — Sioux City 6-7-11—24; Topeka 12-15-8—35.
Power plays — Sioux City 0 of 5; Topeka 1 of 5.
Goalies — Sioux City, Chovan (8-3-1) 20 shots, 15 saves; Aarnio (7-3-0) 15 shots, 11 saves; Topeka, Sedevie (9-6-3) 24 shots, 21 saves.
Referee — Albers. Linesmen — Morrison, Mills.
Attendance — 1,094.
ScareCrows: Goals record tied in 9-3 victory
Crows whip Musketeers
ANN WILLIAMSON/The Capital-Journal
ScareCrows forward Rob Rankin brings the puck down the ice during Sunday’s 9-3 victory over Sioux City in a rematch from Saturday night’s game.
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