Evergreens Tower Over Lions

With 6 of 8 teams having their season openers in the books, it was just the Lions and Evergreens waiting to get the ball rolling.

Kyle Publicover won the draft lottery in mid September which gave him the league's first overall pick.  With that pick, he chose NHL rookies Landon Miron and James Harrison.  It took just 50 seconds for Kyle to feel vindicated.  It was the first shot of the game and Landon Miron rifled it past the glove of Jamie Wutke in the Lions goal.

Jake Rankin had a great chance to level the score not too long afterwards with a breakaway, but Phil Sprague, filling in for Jonny Prall, made the save as Rankin aimed low.  But Rankin was feeling it, and a very similar play resulted in Jake getting his own rebound and tucking it in to tie the game at 13:14 of the first period.

It was even play for both teams when Silas Bonnell, playing against his father, took a shot from the point through a screen.  The puck found its way through a hole and into the top of the net as the Evergreens took the 2-1 lead.

That lead was gone a minute later when Dustin Hall snuck in back door and one timed a perfect pass from Jamie Richard covering for a pinching defenceman.  The period would end with the game tied at 2 and neither team carrying the play.

Not to be outdone by his captain counterpart, Kyle Publicover banged in a rebound on a bit of a scramble in the Lions crease to give the Evergreens their third lead of the game, and then, yup, you guessed it, the Lions tied it up once more.  Jake Rankin scored his second goal of the game and we were tied 3-3 with under 10 minutes to play.

After killing 3 penalties, the Lions found themselves on a power play for the first time.  After a comedy of errors that resulted in a faceoff in the Lions zone, Landon Miron lined up for the draw and won it forward, taking the shot on Wutke that was saved, but the madness in front of the net left as Wutke was knocked over by an Evergreens forward, left an opening for Miron to put his own rebound in Shorthanded.

Jonny Bamford knocked a dump in out of their air and spotted Chris Ryder picking the juiciest cherries in the world, and I would know something about that.  Chris took the puck in all alone and went blocker side for the first two goal lead of the game.

The Lions thought they had clawed one back when Dustin Hall shot a puck into the open net from the goal line as Silas Bonnell slid into try to stop it.  It hit him right in the head and much debate followed about whether he was over the line when it hit him or not, but the officials said no, making it one hell of a save, and then he covered it on the goal line with his body to stop it from going in.

In the final 2 minutes the Lions were discussing which player to send out when they pulled the goalie, but they couldn't clear the zone and Alex Bethune was in the right place at the right time as the puck got behind the goaltender and he slammed it home into the empty net.  

With just a few seconds left in the game, Shane Whitman topped it off as the Evergreens collected their first win of the season.  Game 2 will be another set of first time matchups next week as the season is underway for everyone.