As the old saying goes, if the Stampede didn't have bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck at all. Stanislav Dzakhov scored a powerplay goal with 3.5 seconds remaining to lift the Fargo Force past the Stampede 3-2 in front of 3,777 on Saturday night at the arena.
With the game tied at 2 late in the third period, the Stampede were flagged for too many men on the ice after everyone thought a whistle had blown and the play had stopped. Only problem was, the play resumed and the Stampede got called for too many men on the ice after confusion on the ice that led to a Fargo breakaway. Jay Williams made a great pad save, but the penalty put the Force on the powerplay to close out regulation.
The Stampede's penalty kill was looking good and right as it appeared the Stampede would kill the penalty off, Dzakhov's shot slipped under the pads of Stampede goaltender Jay Williams and the Stampede's winless streak stretched to five games. The Herd have lost the last three contests on the last shot of the game and are now 12-21-3 and three points behind Tri-City and Des Moines for the final playoff spot in the West.
After a scoreless first period, the Stampede grabbed the first goal of the game seven minutes into the second period when Zach McCarver tallied his first goal of the season. Ian Mansfield had the puck in the slot and got the puck to Dan Carlson who saw McCarver open at the side of the net. Carlson sent a pass to McCarver who lifted into the back of the net to give the Stampede a 1-0 lead. That lead would hold after two periods with the Stampede outshooting Fargo 15-3 in the period.
Fargo got rolling in the third period, tying the game just 1:45 in on a powerplay goal by Bryn Chyzyk. 15 seconds later Ed McGovern was flagged for slashing and that resulted in another Fargo powerplay goal just 14 seconds later when Dzakhov found the back of the net through the Stampede defense to give Fargo a 2-1 lead.
It stayed that way until 16:55 when Kyle Rankin brought the nearly 3,800 fans to their feet on a backhand shot that went past the stick side of Fargo goaltender Reed Peters to make it a 2-2 game until the final seconds of the game when Dzakhov tallied his second of the night to give the Force the victory.
