Chrome come ever so close to first victory since Albany
By Nick Zoroya | Aug 21, 2023
Chrome’s hunt for the seventh and final playoff seed has come to an end. On the back of Saturday night’s loss to the Redwoods, the men are now 1-8 after suffering eight straight losses. The overtime nature of the loss doesn’t take away the sting, but it certainly shows that the Chrome aren’t as far off as their record might indicate.
Defense Strong Again
Defense hasn’t been an issue for the Chrome this season averaging 11.7 scores against which is good for third best in the league. The Redwoods haven’t been offensive juggernauts, averaging just 11 scores per game, but with guys like Rob Pannell and Ryder Garnsey, you can never take them for granted. Two man games and unnecessary slides have given the Chrome trouble this season and all-star close defender JT Giles-Harris mentioned that the focus was on “pick play but at the same time, first and foremost, win your matchup on the ball and compete”. And compete they did, limiting the success of the two-man game while holding stars like Garnsey and Pannell to one goal between them.
Sconone continued his string of solid performances clocking 12 saves and 57%, continuing to be a steadying force in net. Allowing eleven goals in the PLL is acceptable, the expectation is that if you allow eleven goals, the offense should be able to take it from there. The biggest issue that the defense had in Saturday’s game was poorly timed penalties. Eli Salama took two penalties which allowed the Redwoods to score two powerplay goals.
When the season is on the line and your offense isn’t able to bail you out, you can’t commit undisciplined penalties.
The Wiz Kid Returns
To put it bluntly the Chrome offense has been anemic this season. With 74 scores they are in last place offensively and by a wide margin. The offense has had output from plenty of players but never consistently. Cross Ferrara came on strong during the second half of the season, scoring 9 goals in the past four games. During those same four games we saw Logan Wisnauskas shoot 0-19, uncharacteristic for a player who scored 35 points last season.
“We kind of simplified things going into tonight, offensively, and I think when we stuck to the game plan we got some easy looks and goals,” said Chrome Head Coach Tim Soudan.
While the offense only put up 9 goals, it was clear that one player in particular benefited from the simplified offense. Wisnauskas exploded for four goals, many of which were very reminiscent of his 2022 play.
The focus on getting the ball to the attack early and then pushing the tempo directly benefited Chrome. We saw several goals in transition or early offense, where the defense wasn’t fully settled and the Chrome were able to take full advantage.
Resilience
When you’re last place in the league it would be easy to pack it in and get ready for next season, but if there’s one thing that I know it's that the 2023 Chrome never quit. They battled to the end.
The Chrome head to Salt Lake City for their final game of the season. They will play the Chaos, Saturday August 26th at 9:30pm on ESPN+.
