Prall Shoulders the Blame

After watching the Aurora take the league lead on a tiebreaker the night before, Kyle Publicover was looking to earn even a single point as his Evergreens were taking on Blake Isenor's 4th place Norsemen.

The first period started off slowly, much like the games the night before, it seemed like everyone needed to get back to hockey mode after the holidays.

The Evergreens were leading in shots from early on, and they got the first good scoring chance off a nice passing play between Drew LeFrank, James Harrison, and Ivan Kravchenko, but Aidan Durnford made a big stop on a shot directed through his five-hole.

Less than 2 minutes later, a puck bounced off a leg and out to Brendan Hawboldt at the point.  He wound up a shot as Drew LeFrank came out to block it.  LeFrank got his stick on the shot but as he did so, the two collided in a thunderous manner.  Hawboldt would leave the game temporarily, heading to the dressing room to learn the source of the blood coming out of his face, and then to stem its flow.

That was the bulk of the highlights from the first period, a period in which the Evergreens outshot the Norsemen 17-10.

In the second we would get a goal in the opening minute when Landon Miron fired a shot past the glove of Durnford.  Watching his friend score was not the story Connor Tousignant wanted to be written, so he came out looking to make his own mark on the game.  He and Keaton Hicks had a nice give and go culminating in Connor finding himself all alone in front of Jonny Prall, and he fired the puck up and over Prall's blocker to tie the game at 1.

Landon Miron then danced the whole Norsemen squad. Those on the bench included, and as he managed to get to the net with possession, despite being mauled, he made a quick move across the goal mouth and appearing to have an open net, he slid the puck across the goal line.  Or he would have if Durnford didn't have lightning legs which shot out and denied Landon his second of the game.

This tight game was a toss up, anyone's to have and when Jonny Prall reached to cover a puck at the side of the net, it seemed like an other play, except this time something was wrong.  He was clearly injured.  His shoulder popped out and in a lot of pain, he stood  up after a few minutes of not wanting to move too much, and in doing so, the shoulder popped back into place, but Prall's night was done with just over 7 minutes to play in the second.

For the first time in league history, we would have a game where a goaltender couldn't finish, and a replacement wasn't readily available.  The Evergreens would go up a man, though being shorthanded at the time, that would mean they would be at even strength without a goalie in net.  The Norsemen wouldn't score on the remainder of the power play, though they would just after it ended when an Evergreens defender tripped and lost the puck in front of the net.  Then the Norsemen would go down a man, giving the Evergreens a 6 on 4.  Miron scored and tied the game back up with 3:47 to play.

At 3:37, Blake Whebby would score his second empty netter of the night.  Brendan Hawboldt scored on a shot from the point on a Norsemen power-play, and then a pizza was delivered up the middle to Connor Tousignant who was all alone with the empty net in the final minute as the Norsemen scored 4 empty netters to take the game 5-2.  

We are all wishing Jonny Prall a speedy recovery.