Aurora With a Big Win, and a Big Loss

The Norsemen didn't want to have the Lions catch them in the standings and in the first minute, they took advantage of an errant pass as the puck came out in front to Stephen Warwick, he was all alone and deked around thr goalie, but Joey Richard came in and stopped the puck on the line, but then cleared it right to Connor Tousignant who buried it into the open net.

Warwick made a similar move when he took a pass from Pete Swistun, and this time no-one was there on the goal line.  Just 90 seconds into the game, the Norsemen were up by a deuce.  

The game was pretty evenly played after the Lions settled down, and scoring became a challenge.  Both Jamie Wutke in the Lions goal, and Craig Burgoyne in the Norsemen net, we're stopping everything.  It wasn't until we were within the final 5 that we found another goal.  The Lions went to the power play for the second time in the period, but it was Connor Tousignant taking a pass from Blake Whebby as they rushed the puck up short handed.  Connor deked around Wutke and the Lions were staring down the barrel of a 3-0 shutout.

The shutout wasn't going to be ok for the Lions and they worked to fight it.  Success came when Dustin Hall wound up a clapper and drilled it into the shins of  Nick Morris. The puck deflected right to the stick of Dave Matthews and he wristed it into the net for their first of the game.

3-1 for the Norsemen was the score as the game entered the 2nd.  The period was devoid of scoring until Shaun MacIntosh fed a pass up to Jamie Richard who roofed a shot with 3 minutes to play.  The Lions made a strong effort to tie it up in the final minutes but couldn’t find the goal they needed as they fell to the Norsemen 3-2.

The Osprey and Aurora were playing each other on the other rink and an Aurora win would create a 3 way tie for first place.

Pressure was on the Osprey to get the three points to fend off a late week Evergreens attack on the top spot, and it was Nathan Bessey getting the ball rolling.  Taking a pass from Matt Ryder in the slot, Bessey ripped a shot bar down, just past the ear of Logan MacLean in the Aurora goal for his 10th of the year.

Matt Simpson scored his team leading 13th goal of the season to tie it up when Brandon Crowell found him with time and space in front of the net.  Simpson then told David Lacey to “shut the fuck up”, on the bench and Lacey did (for a minute) and instead let his actions speak for him as he scored to put the Aurora in front.

The Osprey took a late period penalty and the Aurora power-play went to work.  Noah Joncas spotted Ray Carrigan and Carrigan’s 3rd of the year gave the Aurora a 2 goal lead as the period expired.

In the second period, the Aurora lost a big piece of their defensive core when Noah Joncas dislocated his shoulder and was forced to leave the game.  He would finally have it put back in place 3 hours later and his status remains unknown.  The Aurora remained strong and Matt Simpson was sprung on a breakaway.  He came in and took a backhander in Matt Baird but Baird made the save.  The rebound dropped to his left and it looked like an open half of the net for Brandon Crowell as he followed up the play, but Baird shot out his left leg at the last second in a lightning quick move, shocking the Aurora who were ready to celebrate.

Baird leads the league in GAA and his team understood the assignment; take advantage of good goaltending.  They came back up the ice and got in to the Aurora crease, the puck sitting on the goal line with Keith Webb doing everything he could to knock the puck in, but Kyle Ervin was there to save the day, knocking the puck into Logan from the goal line.

Bobby Sacre got the puck for the Osprey near the point and took a few steps into an open seam and placed a wrister in the top glove side of the net.  The game now 3-2 for the Aurora with 3 minutes to go, things were suddenly getting more intense.  Glen Boyce was pinching down to keep a puck into with just over a minute to go when Derek Hale leaned into him with a check.  The ref’s arm went up and we had a late Osprey power-play on our hands.

Matt Simpson won the ensuing draw by shooting it directly out of the zone which killed some precious time.  The Osprey regrouped.  Keith Webb wound up and faked the shot from the ringette line, instead feeding a back door pass to a wide open Matt Pellerin.  Pellerin, with a game tying opportunity heading his direction, failed to make any connection with the puck, the scoring chance squandered.  Matt Simpson again found the puck and he sought the empty netter, knowing that the penalty would negate the icing.  He just missed to the left and the Osprey players seemed to forget that icings were in play.  Slow to collect the puck, the clock ticked down.  Bessey tried to throw a Hail Mary pass up to Matt Ryder but it skipped over his stick.

Travis Hatcher picked up the puck with just a couple seconds left and he held it against the boards, killing the remainder of the clock as a Bessey came in and snowed him, thinking it was Matt Simpson, but instead looking silly.  Simpson and McLeod then came in and gave him little mock snow jobs for good measure.