They have been in this position before and now they are in it again. The Indiana Ice faced an elimination game once in route to the Clark Cup championship in 2009 and again faced a pair of win or go home games when they were down two-games to nothing to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the first round of defending the Clark Cup in 2010.

Indiana rallied to take the final three games against the RoughRiders to advance to the East Division Finals against the Green Bay Gamblers. They now face a 2-1 deficit heading to the final two games of the best-of-five series after dropping a 4-2 decision to the Gamblers Friday at Pepsi Coliseum.

Green Bay scored the game winning goal short handed with 1:12 remaining in the contest after the Ice rallied after trailing 2-0 early in the third period. Indiana scored twice against the Gambler penalty killing unit which was invincible in the playoffs until Indy broke a string of 20 consecutive successful kills by Green Bay.

Travis Lynch scored the game-winner after the Ice got caught pinching in their offensive zone while trying to score the game-winner with the man advantage. The visitors built their 2-0 lead with a goal 15 seconds into the third period by Reed Seckel setting the stage for the comeback.

“It was a bad mistake,” commented Indy forward Max Cook who scored the hosts first goal. “We pushed too hard offensively.”

Cook previously had potted his fifth goal of the playoffs with assists from Nic Dowd and Nick Mattson at 6:13 of the third period.

“Dowd and Mattson won a puck battle in the corner and I tried to get to an open spot,” added Cook. “I just shot it at the net.”

Antti Roppo tied the score at two-all with 5:14 remaining in the contest by putting home the rebound of a Nick Bailen shot which hit the post. Shane Berschbach also earned an assist on the scoring sequence.

It was one of those nights when pucks bounced when players were ready to score and wide open shooters received passes just off line for the first two periods. Some of that was bad luck but the Ice was facing a team which lost only ten games in regulation during the season while compiling a dominating 45-10-5 record.

Green Bay scored the first period’s only goal with 27 seconds remaining in the stanza in an otherwise evenly played opening frame. Ryan Furne poked home a loose puck with the visitors skating with the man-advantage breaking Indy’s perfect home penalty killing record in the playoffs. The hosts had successfully weathered the first dozen opponents’ attempts to score with the man advantage.

Until the late score, each team’s best scoring opportunity came while skating short-handed. Goaltender Casey DeSmith turned away a Gambler scoring chance at 2:58 of the opening period after an Indiana turnover in their defensive zone and netminder Steve Summerhays duplicated the feat for the Gamblers at the 5:40 mark of the first frame.

The Ice outplayed the visitors in the second period but still had nothing on the scoreboard. The first ten minutes of the frame featured long stretches by both teams in their opponent’s defensive zone with little play at center ice. The better scoring chances came in the second half of the period but neither team could dent the net.

“We have to put this behind us quickly” stated Indiana head coach Jeff Blashill. “We have had our backs against the wall before and we have to rally again.”