(CHANDLER, AZ) – Call March 14, 2008, Groundhog Day for Kevin Davis and the El Paso Rhinos.
As he did December 16th, 2007, in the Rhinos’ last game against the Phoenix Polar Bears, Davis scored El Paso’s fifth – and game-winning – goal.
One notable difference: Davis’ latest game-winner came in Game One of the Thorn Cup Finals, the championship series of the Western States Hockey League.
Also different was that the goal wasn’t the Rhinos’ last, as El Paso won, 6-4, at the Polar Ice Arena in Chandler, AZ.
The Polar Bears’ Patrick Flynn opened the scoring a mere 1:28 into the game, ripping a shot from the point top shelf to beat a screened Arthur Hollinger in net for the Rhinos.
But Eric LaBounty answered under three minutes later, walking a tightrope left-to-right through the Polar Bears’ slot and beating Cameron Gibbar unassisted at 4:24.
The defending champs would retake the lead on Jordon Orosco’s unassisted strike at 3:31 of the second, but again the Rhinos answered as Marcus Wilhite scored on a short-handed breakaway at 8:23, putting in a beautiful five-hole shot past Gibbar, the third short-handed goal of the post-season for the Orange and Black.
El Paso got its first lead just 32 seconds later, as Jeffery Schmudlach one-timed Zach Kohn’s pass from behind the net.
The lead would last into the beginning of the third period when the Polar Bears’ Mike Farrell broke in to tie the game a third time at 2:58.
The relative calm of a 3-3 tie would last for more than 10 minutes, but in a span of under three minutes the game would explode with four more goals, set up by an unsportsmanlike behavior penalty issued by referee Scott Miller at 13:20 after Miller felt he was taking too much abuse from the Phoenix bench.
It proved to be costly for the defending champions, as Bill Krueger got another go-ahead goal on the resulting power play at 14:46.
Just 14 seconds later, though, a costly turnover in the Rhinos’ zone allowed the Western States Hockey League’s leading scorer, Blake Barkwell, to swoop in and fire the puck past a scrambling Hollinger for the game’s fourth tie. It was Barkwell's 11th of the postseason after a team record-setting 74 in the regular season.
However, 36 seconds after that, the alarm clock went off and Sonny & Cher sung “I Got You Babe” – the perpetual beginning to all Bill Murray’s mornings in the 1993 classic “Groundhog Day”, about a man forced to relive the same day over and over again.
Sounds fine to Kevin Davis.
The Rocky Mountain line of Parker Harrison (Colorado Springs, CO) and Tad Norris (Snow Mass, CO) fed Davis (Denver, CO), who split the defense and would not be denied the game-winner at 15:36.
Eric LaBounty finished El Paso’s scoring much as he started it, with another close-in goal near the Polar Bears crease at 17:36 of the third.
The two teams play again Saturday night at 7:45 p.m. MDT in a must-win for the hosts.
Meanwhile, Kevin Davis is setting his hotel alarm clock to the local oldies station.
The game can be heard free of charge at www.elpasorhinos.com.