2025…let’s go!

The holidays are over, the sting of the World Juniors is pretty much gone, and it's time to get ourselves back into action.  That began with 2 games on Tuesday night.

The Lions and Aurora met in game 1 of the night and it was about as far from a barn burner as you can get.  The teams both struggled to generate top tier scoring chances with the edge going to the Aurora in the first.  Jamie Wutke and Logan MacLean were stopping everything in net and finished the period with shutouts intact.

The second period opened up a little and 3 minutes in, Brandon Crowell grabbed a puck below the goal line and skated out towards the slot.  He took a quick shot low and beat Wutke 5-hole to get the Aurora on the board.  The Lions responded a few minutes later when Brandon Marsh banged in a rebound on a hard work play at the side of the Aurora goal.

Throughout the course of the second period, we saw some good chances, like Simpson finding Crowell back door but Wutke sliding across to deny him, and Matt Gendron blocking a shot on the penalty kill and getting a breakaway but Logan denies him.

The game went to the shootout, the first one for the Lions this season, and the Aurora in their 4th.  Jamie Richard, after not registering a point for the first time this season, put one in for the Lions.  David Lacey fanned on a shot which ended up fooling Wutke, and then Ray Carrigan, the 7th shooter, and it feeling like Canada/Latvia, went high glove to pop the water bottle and win the game for the Aurora.

On the other rink we had the Tigers vs the Osprey in a game many expected would easily go to Pink.  That wouldn't be the case.  Though the Osprey did indeed open the scoring, with Matt Ryder scoring just under 3 minutes in.

The Tigers could have just sat back and taken a beating but they persisted in the absence of their fearful leader Gnorme Gallant, whose Ironman streak would come to a close, just as Brent Burns, an 88 with an actually nice beard, was closing in on an Ironman streak in the other NHL.

Zack "red light" Harrison got the Tigers level as his snipe show continued, and the first ended tied 1-1.

The second period is when the boys woke up. Starting at 14:05 we had 5 goals in succession that were scored less than a minute apart, starting with Matt MacNeil giving the Tigers the 2-1 lead.  Sadly for the kitty cats, the next 4 would be from the Osprey with Elford and Webb scoring once and Ryder finishing another hatty off.

The a tigers again fought back with MacNeil and Keays scoring back to back goals to make it a one goal game with plenty of time to go.  It seemed like the Tigers might find a way back into the game but Matt Baird was doing his best to keep that from happening, and the Osprey dug in a worked to keep the Tigers from getting many chances.  Then it happened, the most unexpected goal scorer for the Osprey.  No, not Bobby Sacre, it was Matt Ryder!  He scored his 4th of the game to make it 6-4 with 6 minutes to go.

As time wound down, the Osprey kept the puck away from the Tigers, not letting them pull Comeau for the extra skater, but Cobee MacNaughton had a little magic in his hands as he slid the puck in for the goal with under a minute to play.  The Tigers would eventually pull Comeau and Matt MacNeil broke in and looked like he might get through the whole Osprey team before it was knocked off his stick at the last second.  The puck was cleared down and that was it, the Osprey took home the 3 points in a close game.  

Nathan Bessey could be seen skating around looking for Norm to take a photo of the two of them together, but he would skate away sad in the end.

We've got 2 more games this week and plenty of opportunities to see the standings moving around.