Power-Play

The Osprey had a grip on first place as the week began and as they matched up against the Aurora, it was in question whether or not they could hold on to that lead.  A win for the Aurora would put them, the Osprey, and the Evergreens, in a 3 way tie for first at 15 points, and the Evergreens would have a game in hand.

David Lacey, the captain of the Aurora, was confident in his team's ability to beat the Osprey, but he was missing Brandon Crowell, one of his star forwards, and his package mate Chris Stickings.  It was another package that opened the scoring however.  Dylan Kugler rushed the puck up the wing and made a nice pass over to his package-mate Ray Carrigan.  Carrigan shot it past the glove of Matt Baird for his first of the season. 1-0 Aurora.

Nick Collins then threw a puck towards the net and it deflected of Mat McLeod's skate and in as Matt Baird let in 2 goals for only the second time this season and we weren't 5 minutes into the game.

Having scored a beauty of a goal in the recent Hockey Helps the Homeless tournament, Osprey forward Steve Power was feeling good, that kind of good where you think every shot on goal just might go in.  But Steve hadn't scored a goal in the Nomad Hockey League in over a calendar year, last scoring on October 26, 2023.  Steve came up the ice and shot a backhander towards the Aurora goal from the side boards, and I shit you not, that puck went in!

Power's goal resulted in an eruption of cheers from the Osprey bench and some added motivation to work hard.  Keith Webb came in and deked half the Aurora team and then with Logan MacLean at his mercy, he passed the puck over to Tayler Faulkner for a gift of a goal.  With 6:16 left in the first, we were once again tied.

Smelling blood, Matt Ryder put his Bubly down and clocked in, making short work of the Aurora and Branden Rankin, eager to battle back and beat Jake Rankin in the Race of the Rankins, put in the puck.  Branden has a good chance of catching Jake if Matt Ryder keeps gift wrapping for him while Jake is on the LTIR.

With the Osprey up 3-2 at the half, we had a game on our hands.  Nathan Bessey, man of many points, took a page out of Power's book and fired a shot along the ice from the blue line, beating Logan to make it 4-2.

Kyle Ervin started the play in the Aurora zone, making a feed up to Ray Carrigan whose deft touch to Matt Simpson gave Simpson space with speed.  Simpson ripped a shot just under the blocker and cut the lead to 4-3.

Matt Pellerin and Nathan Bessey had a 2 on 1 with 6:30 left to go in the game with a chance to secure some insurance.  After a couple of passes, Pellerin fired and MacLean made a huge paddle save.  Unfortunately for the Aurora, Bessey was sitting alone in the crease and picked up the garbage.  His pigeonesque goal marks his 100th point in the Nomad Hockey League, he is the 10th player in league history to hit that mark, and the second this year after the Lions Jamie Richard.

The Aurora tried their best to come back and pulled their goalie on the penalty kill.  Bessey blocked a shot and was going in alone on the empty net with Kyle Ervin in pursuit, but Bessey was not going to miss the chance for his second hatty of the season, as he led the Osprey to a huge 6-3 win.

Despite all of that, the real star of the night was Bailey Whynot.  Bailey came in last second to timekeep after Jamie Anstey's last minute bow out.  Bailey did an excellent job with the clock, and keeping track of all the details in an accurate and legible manner.  You would never know she had never TK'd before.  We might have to get her out again.  Thanks Bailey!