Round 2, Let’s Go!

Round 2 started Tuesday night with the captains who drafted 1st playing the team that drafted 2nd, and the the team that drafted 5th overall facing off the team that drafted 6th.  First off, the Osprey vs Evergreens, Nathan Bessey vs Kyle Publicover.

 

It was Bessey’s team striking first, Matt Pellerin was sitting in front of the net when the captain shot the puck on goal.  The rebound came out perfectly to Pelley and he chipped it in at 12:46 of the first period, just before the Evergreens penalty was set to expire.  

 

With neither team able to figure out the goaltenders, the game wouldn’t see another goal in the first period as the Osprey maintained their tiny lead. In the last 5 minutes of the first, a barrage of penalties was upon us.  It all started when Silas Bonnell decided he wasn’t 5’7” anymore as he threw a crushing hit.  Then we had Steve Power and Kyle Gouthro sit down with matching unsportsmanlike conducts.

 

Four and a half minutes into the second, there was a faceoff just outside the Osprey zone.  Landon Miron won it forward and Carter Nickerson barged his way through his check to grab the puck and powered towards the Osprey goal.  As he got close he fired a snapshot that went into the top of the net to tie the game.  Then The Osprey got into some penalty trouble.  Matt Pellerin got a cross checking minor and then he played part of a shift and got an unsportsmanlike conduct.  He couldn’t figure out the penalty pox door and needed to politely request referee assistance on that one.

 

While Pelley was busy decorating his new little apartment, his team was out killing his penalty and Kurt Thibault stole a puck and darted up the left wing.  Right as he shot, an Evergreens player took a penalty and the refs arm went up.  The Thibault shot was a snipe, popping the water bottle for the 2-1 goal, which cancelled out the delayed call.

 

The Osprey went to the power play and worked the puck around.  Durnford made a save and his team tried to clear the puck, but Bobby Sacre got it at the point.  He fired it on goal and the rebound went far to the left of the goaltender, but Matt Ryder went and grabbed it, quickly shovelling a backhander toward the net.  The puck crossed the line just as the net was coming off, and the Osprey went up by 2 with 3:24 left to play, all of their goals special teams goals.

 

The Evergreens attempts to mount a comeback were futile as the game ended 3-1.  These two teams will have no time to rest as game 2 goes tonight.

 

Rink C hosted the Aurora vs the Norsemen.  Both teams had pretty full lineups, with the Aurora missing Max Dewey who was injured on a play in the last round, injuring his shoulder, and David Lacey.  Needless to say, the absence of Lacey was giving early drums a much needed break, and the shift lengths were shortened significantly.

 

One minute into the game, Matt Simpson, acting Aurora captain, rushed up the right wing, got past everyone and cut in.  He tried to chip the puck over Phil Sprague as he cut across but Sprague denied him, and stopped the rebound too.

 

The Aurora were pressuring hard, determined to get the opening game win and Brandon Crowell was the man to get the party started with a wrister through a screen that went over the blocker of Sprague 2:14 into the game.  We nearly saw a goal for Dylan Kugler of the Aurora at 12:40 of the first, but Kurt Sampson got his stick on the puck that was heading for the empty net off a rebound.  The Aurora were up 9 shots to none before the Norsemen finally got one on Logan MacLean, and it was an easy save.

 

Matt Simpson tried to send Brandon Crowell on a breakaway 6 minutes in, but the puck was about a foot too far in front of the cherry picking Crowell.  The Norsemen then got their first good chance as Ryan DeWolfe took a shot from the left wing and narrowly missed the net to the left of MacLean. 

 

Kugler was looking for that goal Kurt a Sampson stole from him and he picked a Blake Isenor pass off in the neutral zone. He worked into the Norsemen zone and let loose a shot from the high slot.  It clanged off the crossbar but stayed out.  Then Simpson and Crowell connected on a stretch pass, Crowell going in alone and shooting, but Sprague shut him down and covered the rebound.

 

The ice was heavily tilted in the first period, the Aurora outshooting the Norsemen 16-6, but the score was only 1-0, so no-one was confident of any outcome.  Early in the second period, Stephen Warwick saw Connor Tousignant in front, and open net at his feet, and the pass was made.  Travis Hatcher got in and broke up the pass, stopping a sure goal.  He then made a pass up to Matt Simpson why was flying he zone.  Simpson got around everyone including cutting across the goal mouth, around Sprague he went and with a lot of net looking at him, he hit the outside of the post.  Would the Aurora be haunted by that miss?  Or how about the crossbar Simpson would hit just 10 seconds later?  Maybe it would be the post Noah Jon as hit just 20 seconds after that.  

 

The Aurora were coming in waves, all their lines contributing, and finally, after a scrum at the side of the net to the right of Phil Sprague, where he made 3 saves in a row, the puck bounced over the Dylan Kugler on the left post and he has an easy goal with no coverage on him.  

 

Stephen Warwick would try to will his team to respond, taking a shot from the point he was covering.  It went through the wickets of Logan just barely and it was loose behind the goaltender, but before a Norsemen player could reach it, the Aurora cleared it to safety.  The Norsemen had a bunch of late chances, but couldn’t find a goal, not until a puck was sent down the ice and two Norsemen were pursuing it.  Logan made a late decision to come out and meet the puck, diving for it as Ryan DeWolfe reached it and easily skated around the outstretched MacLean, his shutout bid over, and the game now just 1 shot away from being tied up.

 

Brandon Crowell had enough, he decided to be selfish with the puck and he went up the left side of the ice, getting around the D with a beauty toe drag, and as he got the the net, Sprague started sliding to the middle anticipating a pass that never came, and Crowell slipped it in by the vacated post to make it 3-1.  In the end, the Aurora would outshoot the Norsemen 36-23, hitting 7 posts on top of that, as they took game 1 of their best of three series.  Their second game will go next Tuesday.