Sunday, February 13, 2011, New Hope Arena, New Hope, MN. In his first of two controversial coaching moves of the night, Captain John Errigo asked Dana Cudo, Rob Yurko, and Dan Bolles to stay home to try to give the Stars a chance during Sunday’s game. It didn’t work, as the Stars were grossly overmatched despite the Horde’s short bench.
The Horde came out strong, and peppered the Stars goaltender with 30 shots in the first 2 periods, 11 of them finding the back of the net. Most Horde players ended up on the scoring sheet, with Steve Lenzen (4) and John Errigo (2) having multi-goal nights. When asked what the most important play of the game was, defenseman Brian Hinderks stated, “It had to be Gary Schwartz’s assist on the 8th goal. That assist single-handedly turned the tide and gave the Horde the confidence it needed to finish with a W.”
Despite some chippy play by the frustrated Stars, the Horde managed to play a clean game. The most controversial call came late in the game, when Chris Warlick got called for a 2-minute penalty for “trying too hard with an 11 goal lead” – at least that’s what it looked like to the guys on the bench.
Errigo’s second unorthodox coaching move came at the end of the second period. With the Horde ahead by 11 goals, and having outshot the Stars 30-5 to that point, Errigo appealed to his teammates to ease up and go easy on their rivals. When asked how this locomotive could possibly be slowed down without derailing, Errigo’s advice to the team was to “try play like you’re Jon Zimmerman”. To this, defenseman Tyler LaMont bemoaned, “You realize that we’re only ahead by 11.” Errigo stood firm, and with the Horde playing like an army of Zimmermans, they were outshot in the final period by a tally of 7-3. Despite this late Stars flurry, strong play by goaltender, Nathan Kangas, kept them off the scoring column, as he recorded his league-high 3rd shutout of the season.
