Wutke(y) to Success

It was a shooting gallery in our opening match of the night on Tuesday with the Aurora trying to get back into the conversation about the league's top teams.  David Lacey, the captain of the Aurora was the man to opene up scoring with a patented wrap around goal.  Once that one went in, just 70 seconds into the game, it was all Aurora pressure from there, but it wasn't the Aurora striking next.  It was Nick Marshall of the Greyhounds beating Logan MacLean clean.

Logan was not happy to be beaten and from there on out, he stopped every shot that came his way, lowering his GAA to 3.72.  His team were on fire offensively, so he didn't even need to have as good a game as he ended up having.

Noah Joncas, the birthday boy, with his girlfriend timekeeping, picked up two goals and an assist on the night for three points, which was matched by Brandon Crowell who had one goal and two assists.  Max Dewey got into the action with two goals, and Ryan Clarke had two apples.  

The 8-1 win puts the Aurora in third for goals for this season to go along with their third place in the standings, though there are still other games to be played.

The Aurora's next game is against the Tigers on Tuesday and the Greyhounds will see the Evergreens the same night.

Our second game was between the Lions and Eurekas and this was a tightly contested match.  The first shot of the game was a clapper by Matt Peters from the high slot which Jamie Wutke got a blocker on (see above photo), and that set the tone for the Lions.  The Eurekas had Nick Comeau in net and he was making some beauty saves in his net too, including a diving backwards blocker save on both Jamie Richard and Dustin Hall.  

The score was tied at zero after the first.  It was a weird one that would finally open the scoring.  Matt Gendron got the puck at the bottom of the circle and fired it towards the net.  It banked off a Eurekas defender and past Comeau to break the shutout.  The next one was also a tricky one for Comeau to stop as a Jamie Richard shot went off a Eurekas player's hand and Matt Gendron batted it out of the air, not too far from the ice.  The puck went straight through the wickets of Comeau.

With two minutes left, the Eurekas pulled their goalie and added a man to make something of their game.  The Lions twice iced it, and the Eurekas would get some possession with just 30 seconds left, the puck came loose from a scramble to Peters all alone with Jamie Wutke out of position on the opposite side of the net, but in a shocking twist, Dustin Hall dove and knocked it off Peters' stick.  The puck went around to Kyle Weatherbee behind the net, and Weatherbee made a smart play, taking a moment with it, then coming out from behind the goal, and skating it up with Jamie Richard available for the head man pass, which was made.  Jamie took the puck in and put it into the empty net for the icing on the cake as the Lions won the game 3-0.

The win was the 4th for the Lions who are in the middle of the pack, but in those 4 wins, Jamie Wutke has recorded 3 shutouts, which is a single season record, and ties him for most shutouts all time in the Nomad Hockey League with J.K. MacAdam who took 52 games to get there as opposed to Wutke's 8.

The Lions will take on the first place Osprey in a rare Monday night game next week.  The Eurekas will play the Norsemen on Wednesday next week.