Second-half save

Tony Colistro learned a valuable lesson on Saturday night – stick with what works.

A night after trouncing the Des Moines Menace 7-2, the Thunder Bay Chill coach tweaked his starting lineup for the rematch, with much less satisfying results. The Chill (5-1-1) needed a late goal from midfielder Nolan Intermoia to salvage a 1-1 tie with the Menace (4-2-5), but failed to take over top spot in the Premier Development League’s Heartland Division.

“We were just trying to give a little bit of a different look for some players, to see what we have,” Colistro said. “This is a good time of the season to do that. It didn’t work out. We made an error there at the end of the first half. My goalie’s a veteran and he’s got to be smarter than that.”

The error he referred to was a heat-of-the-moment reaction by keeper Stephen Paterson, who, in extra time punched a shot aside, but on his way back to the net shoved a Menace player, drawing a yellow card from referee Yusi Rudolph and handing his opponent an automatic penalty shot.

Midfielder Clark Bradford took the shot, depositing it to the left of Paterson for what could have been a momentum-changing goal.

Instead the Chill regrouped at halftime and came out firing on all cylinders, pressing the Menace for most of the second half.

“I think in the first half we were expecting to run all over them again, and they came out well-prepared and coached. They changed their tactics. They weren’t giving the forwards a lot of space handling the ball,” Intermoia said. “We made adjustments at halftime and started pressing them. When you press and press and press, you get a bounce outside the 18 and you’ve just got to take a shot,” he said, describing his rocket shot that tied the game in the 72nd minute.

It was only a matter of time before they scored, though for the first 27 minutes it looked like the Chill might be a tad snake bitten given the number of close chances and questionable calls from the on-field officials.

In the 58th minute Chill striker Gustavo Oliveira rifled a shot just wide of the mark. Minutes later he hit the side of the net following a corner kick.

Brandon Swartzendruber was taken down in the crease, but no call was made. In the 66th minute it appeared a Menace player was guilty of a hand-ball in the crease; again, no call from the referee.

The Chill managed to play on and kept their focus.

In the 67th minute Intermoia’s header off an Oliveira corner deflected just over the net. Swartzendruber had the same thing happen three minutes later.

Des Moines coach Laurie Calloway said his team got what it deserved, though after Friday’s loss he said his team really needed the three points a victory would have delivered.

Intermoia’s goal was probably a foregone conclusion, he added.

“Eventually something like that was going to happen with the pressure they were putting on us in the second half. I think a tie was a fair result, but there was a tremendous difference between our performance tonight and last night,” said Calloway, who had his players increase their defensive focus on Saturday after giving up seven goals the night before.

That the Chill didn’t pull this one out can be squarely foisted on the shoulders of Des Moines goalie Jake Wright, who came up big as time began to run out and the Chill were pressing extra hard for the go-ahead goal.

Wright stopped Swartzendruber from point-blank range in the 74th minute.

Intermoia, who leads the Chill with seven goals, sailed a free kick just over the top of the net in the 88th minute, while in extra time Chill defender Julius Abegar drilled a shot into Wright’s chest.

Pitch marks: The Chill embark on a season-long five-game road trip, beginning Saturday in St. Louis. They play two against the Lions before playing solo shots against Springfield, Kansas City and Des Moines. Their next home game is July 16 against Colorado.