Mavericks Explode for Eight Goals in 8-5 Win Over Denver

Trevor Kell and Jeff Pierce each had four-point games and the Missouri Mavericks outlasted the Denver Cutthroats, 8-5, Saturday night at Denver Coliseum. The game had four ties and four lead changes, but the Mavericks scored the final three goals of the game. Missouri took three out of four points over the weekend and the team leaves Denver with a 1-0-1 record. Five different Mavericks had multiple point games including four assists by Kell and  Pierce had two goals and two assists. Cutthroats forward A.J. Gale had a hat-trick for Denver scoring the team’s first three goals.
Missouri heads to Arizona next weekend for a pair of games against the Sundogs. The team will return home for their opener at Independence Events Center on Saturday, November 3 against the Wichita Thunder.
“It’s kind of like the pre-season game when we said there was good news and bad news,” exclaimed Mavericks’ Head Coach Scott Hillman. “The bad news is we gave up five goals, but the good news is we scored more than that. We have a lot of work to do but we showed the depth of the three lines and we are excited to see that sort of production this early in the year.”
After the Cutthroats opened up with a 2-0 lead, the Mavericks came storming back and scored three goals 5:19 apart. First Ryan Jardine scored on the power play at the 12:45 mark, and then Tochkin scored his first two professional goals. Kell assisted on both of Tochkin’s goals and the Mavericks held a 3-2 lead through one period.
At total of six goals were scored in the second period. Denver regained the lead on Gale’s third goal and Ben Wilson added one to make it 4-3 in favor of the Cutthroats. Missouri again took over the lead on goals from Jamie VanderVeeken and John-Scott Dickson, but Denver tied the game again at 5-5 on Kyle Quincey’s first goal of the season.
The Mavericks finally took the lead for good when Pierce buried a pass from Sebastien Thinel and the Mavericks took a 6-5 lead. Missouri scored the lone two goals in the third period from Thinel at the 9:17 mark, and then a highlight reel goal by Pierce as he went coast-to-coast and beat goaltender Kent Patterson.
The Mavericks first home game is set for November 3 at Independence Events Center.