Yellow Jackets vs. Colt 45, Febuary 28th, 2007 Jackets Reign in Colt 45 Having been humiliated in consecutive playoff losses to the Colt45 in the last two playoff contests against them, the Jackets knew they could not look past the 2-13-1 team. The Jackets started the game out strong, with Frank Peronne converting a breakaway pass from James Browne, giving the Jackets an early lead. The Jackets continued to pound away at the Colt45, and it paid off with veteral Marc Desomma's third wack at a Marat Shikhris rebound to stake the 2 goal lead early in the first. The game settled down as the teams played more even, before the Jackets relinquished their first goal of the night with less than 2 mintues to play in the period. In the second, the Colt45 used first goal to keep momentum on their side, capitolizing on a Yellow Jacket defensive lapse to tally a tying goal early on. The Jackets converted again, this time it was Shikhris notching his first playoff goal on a wrister with assists going to Browne and Peronne. The Colt answered back a minute later, scoring the 6th goal of a seesaw scoring game. Mike Heller gave the Jackets the lead with Shikhris notching another assist late in the period. Although the Jackets continued getting caught up ice, giving up odd man rushes, which goaltender Matt Rovetto was being forced to make key saves on. On one of the odd man rushes, defensemen Kevin Fogarty was forced to dive to knock the puck away. He missed, the player got their shot off and fell to the ice, drawing a tripping call on Fogarty. He lost his cool on his way to the box, said a few expiclitive deleteds to the referees and was promptly tossed from the game. The Jackets dodged a bullet, as the team only had to kill the origional minor. They conquered that task and headed into the third. In the third, the Jackets played hard and eventually, their strong play lead to a pair of goals from rookie Shikhris, who completed a hat-trick in his first Jacket playoff game. With less than five minutes to play, a Colt player roofed a backhand from the doorstep to put them within one. Marc Desomma answered with his second, pumping a rebound over the goalie and into the top shelf, making the game 7-4. The Colt responded again, refusing to die in the waining moments, closing the gap to 7-5, but inexplicably did not pull their goaltender in the final minute and the Jackets held on for a 7-5 first round victory.

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