Published: October 10, 2009 11:32 pm      

Despite loss, coach sees improvements in Chiefs

Jeff Flanagan saw a lot of similarities between Saturday night’s ECHL exhibition game at Cambria County War Memorial Arena and his first training camp as head coach of the Johnstown Chiefs.

His players put in plenty of hard work and made enough progress during a 3-2 loss to Wheeling to give Flanagan a reason to be optimistic.

The Chiefs open their 22nd ECHL regular season against Cincinnati Saturday at the War Memorial.

Make no mistake. This wasn’t a polished effort.

The Chiefs often had problems getting the puck out of their own end, and the power play didn’t truly click until the third period. But Johnstown finished with a pair of power-play tallies in the final 4:12.

“I saw some real improvements for us,” said Flanagan one week into his first training camp with the Chiefs. “The game on Wednesday night (a 2-1 shootout win at Wheeling), we were really, really scrambling. I think we were scrambling a little (Saturday), but there was a definite progression to a more controlled game.

“The guys worked really hard. At the start of the game that’s the first thing I ask of them. Everything else we can work on. If you’re not working hard, then we have a problem.”

The Chiefs went 1-1-0 in two exhibition games.

“I told the guys we have all week now to really get down to the nitty gritty,” Flanagan said.

The game was 1-0 through two periods.

Wheeling’s Kevin Schmidt converted a power play 10:02 into the game.

The Chiefs had problems early in the third. Wheeling’s Corey Couturier scored 57 seconds into the period, and T.J. Fox made it 3-0 with an unassisted, short-handed goal at 2:46.

“I think we need to work on our defensive zone and neutral zone,” Flanagan said. “We just need to give guys more shots in practice and more work on shot selection, small things that need to be worked on with any team.”

The Chiefs finally rallied in the third.

Matt Robinson converted what amounted to a 6-on-3 advantage at 15:48. The Nailers had two players in the penalty box, and Flanagan pulled goalie Kris Mayotte

(30 shots, 27 saves) for an extra attacker. Ryan Del Monte and Kyle Bushee assisted.

Jarrett Konkle scored on the power play with Mayotte once again pulled with 1:06 left. Ryan Menei assisted.

“I thought we showed real guts at the end scoring the second goal,” Flanagan said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t pull it out but there were some real positives.

“I thought we had better possession. Early on we weren’t getting the extra man on the loose puck in the offensive zone. As the game went on guys got a little more comfortable with who they’re playing with. We started to win the battles and come up with the possessions.

“I thought Kris played really well and he was really calm in the net,” Flanagan said.

“He’s a solid guy back there that we will really lean on heavily.

“We had such a large camp and because we’ve been so focused on trying to whittle it down to manageable numbers, we haven’t had as much time to practice our systems.

“I’m really looking forward to that and to break it down.”