Could We See A Sweep Of Sweeps?

Game 1 was quite the battle between these two teams who came at this series from opposite ends of the standings spectrum.  The Osprey only clawed a victory out in the final few minutes.  You know full well that Nathan Bessey was going to have his Osprey ready to play from puck drop last night.  Shannon Farrell had some bodies back for game 2 and was feeling confident about their chances as well.

 

Leighton Yeo of the Eurekas got the first scoring chance if the night as he had a short breakaway.  He went to the backhand but Matt Baird and his new white helmet stopped him.  Then just 5 seconds later, Yeo got another chance in close, but Baird again denied him.

 

At 13:50 of the first, Bobby Sacre and Jordan Kenny had a big collision at the Eurekas blueline.  Everyone turned to see if someone wouldn’t get up, but these guys are gamers, you aren’t keeping them down.  Shortly after, the Osprey had their first really good chance as Matt Ryder attempted a shot on the short side of Ashton Speight, but Speight wouldn’t let that one through.  The Eurekas were getting more time with the puck to start the game, but the Ryder chance was the turning of the tide.  Kurt Thibault, with his fan club watching, put a shot off the outside of the post.

 

Shannon Farrell got possession of the puck behind the Osprey goal and Zack Walsh snuck in from the point, right to the slot where he was all alone.  Shannon threw him the pass, and it went right through his feet and left the zone.

 

The next faceoff would be to Speight’s left.  Matt Ryder took the draw and win it cleanly back to Nathan Bessey.  Bessey shot it and Ashton thought he had it, but it dropped down to his left and Matt Ryder was there with the open net to start the scoring for the pink guys.  It took nearly 10 minutes for the first goal this time around.

 

Matt Ryder would get the puck off the draw on his next shift and feed Bobby Sacre at the point.  Sacre’s point shot was along the ice and Steve Power with a deft touch on it, redirected the wide shot just inside the post to make it 2-0 Osprey, a little breathing room for the birdies.

 

9 seconds later we had a little dust up between Cody Meisner and Ethan DeBruyn after they collided hard going for the puck.  Both seemed to think the other was at fault, but consensus was that it was just a 50/50 puck that neither won.  Well, they got tossed for their hostilities and the teams carried on at even strength.

 

Branden Rankin graced us with his presence with a few minutes left in the first, replacing the now absent DeBruyn.  Rankin drove all the way to the rink without skates, so let this be a reminder kids, always check your bag before leaving the house.

 

Rankin’s presence gave the Eurekas renewed hope and they pressed the Osprey.  With 3:26 to play, there was a barrage of shots on goal, and the rebound came to Marcus Briand to the left of Matt Baird with Baird over to his right post.  Briand took the shot about 8 inches off the ice into the open net, but no!  Bobby Sacre got his stick there and knocked it out of the air, just in front of the line.  If Baird were to get a shutout at the end of this, he’d have to share the prize money with Sacre.

 

Another big collision happened just after the missed Eurekas chance as Shannon Farrell ran into Matt Ryder in the high slot.  Was it an accident, was Shannon trying to take out the Osprey’s best player?  We may never know.  They were both slow to get up, but seemed to suffer no ill effects as they played on.

 

Bobby Sacre’s bid for a partial shutout would have to wait for another day as Leighton Yeo had a beauty of a tip on a point shot that was sent wide to avoid a fallen Snow, Jeff Snow.  The puck direction was massively changed by Yeo’s tip which sent Baird sliding off way in the wrong direction with 49 seconds left in the first.  The score going into the second was a tight 2-1 for the Osprey.

 

Early in the second period, Nathan Bessey was all alone, like the only guy on the whole right side of the ice, and the puck found him at the top of the circles, or rather Kurt Thibault found him.  Bessey took two steps in, sized up Speight and fired.  The puck went right up into the top glove corner of the net to make it 3-1 Osprey at 14:28 of the second.  Just 18 seconds later, a nice give and go between Ryder and Matt Pellerin ended with an easy tap in for Pellerin and you could see the belief start leaking from the Eurekas, a pool of despair growing at their bench.

 

Taylor McKay hit the crossbar with a hard shot as he had a monster shift while looking to join the scoring fun.  Then a bit of a crazy one for the Osprey as Bobby Sacre was going in alone.  Jeff Snow dove to stop him but missed as Sacre got a shot off.  Speight got a piece of it and Jordan Webber came in and got his stick on the puck just before the goal line to stop it, but Jeff Snow kept coming and slid right into Webber and the net as the puck crossed the line.

 

The Eurekas responded and Shannon Farrell got absolutely denied on. A back door play when Baird slid quickly at Ross the net to get his right pad on the shot.  The Eurekas would claw one back as Jeff Snow buried a rebound, but in the end, it wouldn’t be enough as the Osprey outshot the Eurekas 38-19 in a 6-2 victory.  

 

We had a sweep of sweeps in the first round for the first time in league history.  The second round begins on Tuesday with both matchups and the Osprey/Evergreens going back to back with a game on Wednesday as well.  We are looking forward to some good hockey in the coming weeks in the quest for the Nomad Cup.