Goals Aplenty, But Zydeco Play Last Note, 7-6 in Overtime

A night after clinching their first ever playoff berth the Scarecrows lined up against the Zydeco for their final meeting of the regular season. Topeka came in having taken 9 of the 13 matchups so far looking to put an exclamation point on the season series. Baton Rouge was looking for redemption after a 6-0 loss last night as they closed out their road schedule.

After a delayed start due to Topeka's end of the season awards Baton Rouge wasted no time as Tyler Larwood broke in on Matt Lenz going forehand backhand just 26 seconds in to give the Zydeco the 1-0 lead. 32 seconds later Austin Weber tipped home a Curtis Hansen shot over Lenz for a 2-0 lead before the first minute had even passed. Hunter Alden found the back of the net next 8:51 into the period to give the Zydeco a 3-0 lead before Hansen put one more by Lenz for the fourth goal in a row at 12:28. Topeka found something at 15:19 in the period as Steven Klinck broke in on a 2-on-1 with Scott Coash passed the puck across and with a tip Coash scored his 30th goal of the season to bring Topeka back to within 3, 4-1.

Right after a media timeout Baton Rouge scored their 5th goal of the game as Matej Palfy slapped a shot towards the net past Lenz for the 5-1 lead at 6:22 of the second period. That fifth goal sparked Topeka as Klinck and Coash hooked up again with a stretch pass that saw Klinck deke out Coffey and put the puck behind him at 8:56 of the frame closing the gap to 5-2. 56 seconds later Klinck was at it again as he found Jacob Gagnon who fired the puck past Coffey to bring the Scarecrows back to within two goals, 5-3. On the power play Trevor Lord took a pass from Trevor Grasby cross zone and fired it between the legs of a falling Coffey to bringTopeka back to 5-4. Klinck added another point late in the period as he broke in on Coffey one more time and while Coffey made the initial save the puck sat loose behind him and Klinck shoveled it home to tie the game at 5-5 at 15:56 of the second period. 

Coash put himself on hat trick watch in the third with a power play goal on a perfect cross zone pass from Connor Lind to give the Scarecrows their first lead of the night at 9:41 of the third period. Late in the game with just 99 seconds to go Narek Aleksanyan tied the game up on a cross zone pass at 6-6. In overtime Blake Keller finished the series off with a Zydeco win just 25 seconds into the extra frame.

Lenz stopped 12 of 19 in the loss.

Topeka returns home to take on the Indiana Sentinels Thursday at 7:05pm. Get your tickets on Ticketmaster or at the Cable Dahmer Box Office.