Norsemen Feud with Evergreens

This game wasn’t one to escalate quickly, in fact we didn’t see a great scoring chance for 7 minutes.  Connor Tousignant was carrying the puck on a 2 on 1 and as he got close to the net, he made the pass to Stephen Warwick who was on the back door, but Kyle Gouthro was between them and broke it up.

At exactly 9:00, Josh Stevens took a shot from the point.  Aidan Durnford made the blocker save and the puck went off the end boards, but those boards were lively and the puck quickly bounced back.  Durnford was out of the crease for the save, and the puck came back behind him, just missing the post.  Stephen Warwick was on the prowl and saw the puck come through.  Before Durnford knew what had happened, Warwick had knocked it in from the goal line and it was 1-0.

The Evergreens responded.  Shane Whitman took a shot on Phil Sprague that went off his shoulder, up about 3 feet and dropped down into the net, just barely going over the goal line.  1-1.  Brock Bethune was playing a strong game for the Evergreens, doing a lot of good things, but giving the puck away in his own zone, right in front of the net, to Connor Tousignant, was not one of those good things.  Durnford made a big save to bail him out and keep the game tied.  Moments later, Josh Stevens took down Silas Bonnell and received a holding penalty.  Silas, feeling guilty or something, headed to the box and was about to open the door when he was pleasantly surprised to see Stevens opening the Norsemen penalty box door.  He scurried to his bench instead.

In the box, Stevens was asking what his penalty was for as the puck dropped.  Before a response could be given, Landon Miron won the draw forward and put the puck into the top corner of the net for the power-play goal and a 2-1 Evergreens lead.  It took just 3 seconds.

With 30 seconds left in the period, long arm Tousignant made a go at a wraparound and nearly had Durnford beat, but his speedy legs denied him just in the Nick of time.  The period ended with the Evergreens holding onto a one goal lead with the Norsemen leading only in shots on goal, 15-12.

The Norsemen continued to be the stronger team in the second period as they put more shots on net from scoring positions, including a 2 on 1 where Tousignant passed to Stevens but was denied by Durnford.  The Norsemen were playing strong defence as well, on multiple occasions, James Harrison or Landon Miron got close to the net but no-one beck checks harder than when it’s against a buddy, and Tousignant and Warwick had Miron and Harrison’s numbers, frustrating the hell out of them.

Miron had a good change midway through the period when he flew up the right wing and cut in along the goal line, but a poke from Sprague sent the puck into the air, landing on his pad and staying out of the net.  With 7:52 to go, a beauty of a tic tac toe play between Stevens, Tousignant, and Warwick, finished when Warwick one timed a pass into the back of the net as Durnford attempted to, but failed to, get it with his blocker.

The tie score held and we had a shootout on deck when Warwick found Tousignant a with an open net, only 15 seconds to play.  Aidan Durnford was facing the wrong direction, expecting the shot.  He spun around as he fell back, and slammed his stick down on the ice, it lay flat across the goal line at the exact moment the shot came in.  It was the save of the year, but the rebound of the year went directly to Josh Stevens and in to give the Norsemen the win.

With the 3 points, the Norsemen are now in 3rd place with a game in hand over the Evergreens, whose final match is vs the Eurekas next week.  The Norsemen will need to gain at least 1 point in their final 2 games vs the Osprey on Monday, then the Greyhounds on Tuesday, if they want to be sure of a 3rd place finish.