By Maximilian Stevens | harrisburgheat.com
The Harrisburg Heat defeated the Chicago Mustangs for the first time in team history Saturday night at the Sears Center, but more importantly, the team remained just one game behind first place Baltimore in the loss column and took possession of second place in the East Division. The Heat now trail Baltimore by just 1 and half games with 8 left to play.
Former Mustang Ricardo Carvalho recorded a hat trick, his final goal gave the team the 6-3 victory. A Dominic Francis tally put the Heat up 5-3 midway through the final frame.
Chicago took the lead early in the second half as it came out with goals from Ephraim Beard and Taylor Bond to take a quick 3-2 lead. Harrisburg battled back as it got goals from Fernando Gatica on a beautiful assist from David Mellor and Ricardo Carvalho scored his second of the match on an odd man rush to take back the lead 4-3.
Ricardo Carvalho opened the scoring against his old team in the second as he caught goal keeper Jesus Flores out of position and banked a shot off the boards and into an empty net from his own end to make it 1-0 Heat. Jose Birche rocketed a shot past Flores to make it 2-0 Harrisburg.
Leo Duarte was shown a blue card for taking away a scoring chance from Efrain Martinez who was given a penalty shot and just barely put it past Heat keep Hugo Silva’s left side to cut Harrisburg’s lead to 2-1. That is where things stood at the half.
Both teams played to a scoreless opening period.
The Heat evened it’s record at 6-6 on the season. The last time the Heat defeated a Chicago team was Jan 29th of 1996 against the Power. The last time the Heat won in Chicago was Jan 12th of 1996 against the Power. In the second run of the Heat the team was 0-5 against the Mustangs heading into Saturday’s action.
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