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John-Scott Dickson must really like his hair.
After netting his second hat trick of the season Friday night at the Independence Events Center, the native of North York, Ontario, elected not to choose one of the 90 or so hats that fell to the ice.
No matter. As he puts it, “All I care about is winning.”
And that’s exactly what Dickson and the Missouri Mavericks did in the first of two consecutive games against the Arizona Sundogs, winning 4-3 behind Dickson’s three goals.
“We had to win tonight,” Mavericks coach Scott Hillman said. “We had to come right back after a tough weekend last weekend. Tonight is hopefully something we can build on going forward.”
The “tough weekend” in question contained two home games against conference rival Quad City in which the Mavs lost 5-4 in a shootout and got shelled 8-3.
“Last weekend we had a letdown,” said goalie Charlie Effinger, who has appeared in all but two games since Dec. 23. “It was frustrating; all of the guys were frustrated. But we focused on having a good week of practice this week and worked a lot on special teams. I thought the guys on the penalty kill were great tonight.”
So were the guys on the power play.
That’s where Dickson netted his first two scores. The first came at 15:58 in the first period on a redirect from Ed McGrane. His second came 47 seconds later when he took a dime from Dale Mahovsky and threw it past Arizona goaltender Scott Reid to put the Mavs up 2-0.
“It was great to come out and take a big lead early on home ice and respond the way we did,” Dickson said. “The second period was sloppy, and we had an unacceptable third, and the guys know that can’t happen.”
Sloppy may seem a bit harsh. Quiet would be another way to put it. That is, until the 19:59 mark of the second when Andrew Courtney took McGrane’s rebound and slid it past Reid to make it 3-0.
Dickson got the goal that triggered the headwear avalanche five minutes into the third on another slick feed from Mahovsky to put the game in a hard-to-reach place for the Sundogs.
Not that they wouldn’t try to reach.
“They competed hard all night, and I think when they were down four, I think it hurt their pride a little,” Hillman said. “They brought it in the third, so they deserve a lot of credit.”
John-Scott Dickson must really like his hair.
After netting his second hat trick of the season Friday night at the Independence Events Center, the native of North York, Ontario, elected not to choose one of the 90 or so hats that fell to the ice.
No matter. As he puts it, “All I care about is winning.”
And that’s exactly what Dickson and the Missouri Mavericks did in the first of two consecutive games against the Arizona Sundogs, winning 4-3 behind Dickson’s three goals.
“We had to win tonight,” Mavericks coach Scott Hillman said. “We had to come right back after a tough weekend last weekend. Tonight is hopefully something we can build on going forward.”
The “tough weekend” in question contained two home games against conference rival Quad City in which the Mavs lost 5-4 in a shootout and got shelled 8-3.
“Last weekend we had a letdown,” said goalie Charlie Effinger, who has appeared in all but two games since Dec. 23. “It was frustrating; all of the guys were frustrated. But we focused on having a good week of practice this week and worked a lot on special teams. I thought the guys on the penalty kill were great tonight.”
So were the guys on the power play.
That’s where Dickson netted his first two scores. The first came at 15:58 in the first period on a redirect from Ed McGrane. His second came 47 seconds later when he took a dime from Dale Mahovsky and threw it past Arizona goaltender Scott Reid to put the Mavs up 2-0.
“It was great to come out and take a big lead early on home ice and respond the way we did,” Dickson said. “The second period was sloppy, and we had an unacceptable third, and the guys know that can’t happen.”
Sloppy may seem a bit harsh. Quiet would be another way to put it. That is, until the 19:59 mark of the second when Andrew Courtney took McGrane’s rebound and slid it past Reid to make it 3-0.
Dickson got the goal that triggered the headwear avalanche five minutes into the third on another slick feed from Mahovsky to put the game in a hard-to-reach place for the Sundogs.
Not that they wouldn’t try to reach.
“They competed hard all night, and I think when they were down four, I think it hurt their pride a little,” Hillman said. “They brought it in the third, so they deserve a lot of credit.”
What they did bring was a shorthanded goal a minute after Dickson’s hatter, a power play goal with 4:31 left, and one more with 13.5 seconds left with six skaters on the ice.
Ultimately, though, the comeback fell short. But Hillman says the end result could look much the same Saturday night.
“They’re going to have some extra motivation coming into tomorrow to get that one back,” he said.
But for the time being, the Mavericks keep their hold on third place in the Turner Conference, trailing by four points to Fort Wayne and Evansville, who both have accumulated 54 points.
“We need to stay focused,” Hillman said. “We need points wherever we can get them. We’re ahead of what our pace was last year, so we just have to finish strong, and hopefully we can edge our way up to a higher seed in the playoffs.”
