Booooring Game between the Wolfy Teams

Closing out our Wednesday was Jonny Bamford’s Wolfpack taking on Jeff Snow’s Wolverines.  The latter of which were short Jamie Richard who was dealing with a lower body injury, but he was on the bench with a drink in hand supporting his team.

Just 80 seconds into the game, a crazy bounce to the Wolfpack in the crease almost led to the first goal.  That was the only excitement for the first 5 minutes until Jonny Bamford skated with the puck towards the Wolverines goal, he went right through the crease and managed no shot on goal.

Mike Bourgeois and Ivan Kravchenko had a big collision behind the Wolverines goal a minute later, both players got up without complaint and kept playing.  Max Dewey ripped his first of about 5 unsuccessful clappers of the game after Greg Moffat stopped 5 clearing attempts at the line.

The first really good scoring chance came at 8:15 when Carter Nickerson, a known sniper, was alone in the slot and fired his shot high over the net where Nick Comeau was just hoping that would happen.  Scott Stewart nearly had a couple of breakaways but got held up on one, and then the pass was too far ahead of him on the next one, but he was the main guy pushing the offense forward for the Wolverines.

Jonny Bamford stole the puck at the line in the Wolverines zone and threw a shot on goal with Jared MacLean all alone in front.  The puck skipped and MacLean couldn’t get a stick on it.  The Wolfpack had good pressure on a late first period power play but it was fruitless. 

0-0 after the first period, the Wolverines nearly opened the scoring when Carter Nickerson had a rush and stopped up, the Wolfpack D flying past, he then skated three strides in and shot.  He just narrowly missed the far post as it went by Comeau’s glove.

Kurt Thibault had a decent chance for the Wolfpack but Ashton Speight wasn’t letting anything by him and redirected it up and over the net with his glove with 13:17 left in the second.  Less than a minute later it was Scott Stewart with a backhand that Comeau stopped to keep the score tied at zero.  Grinder Ryan Clarke got the puck on the next shift and fed a nice pass to Nickerson whose time alone was plenty, but he fanned on the shot.  Nothing was working for anyone except the tendy’s.

Jared MacDougall got close for the Wolfpack when he batted his own rebound out of the air and just over the goal.  Scott Stewart had one of the nicest dekes of the game as he beat Eli Beaton and went in by himself.  I for he shot it right into the crest of Comeau and Beaton was taken to hospital for broken ankles.

Mat McLeod hit the post off a slot shot with a few minutes left to go but that is as close at the Wolfpack would get.  The Wolverines ended regulation with a bunch of good chances including a long shot on a 2 on 0 by Andrew MacDonald that almost found its way in, and Rohan Dempsey feeding Mike Bourgeois back door on the power play that almost worked.

 The game ended 0-0, the first time in Nomad Hockey League history that we would see a shootout before a goal was scored.  The players in the shootout had as much success scoring as they did in regulation.  After 11 shooters failed to score, Carter Nickerson finished it but popping the water bottle behind Comeau as the puck beat his blocker.

The Wolverines and Wolfpack each earned a point in regulation and the Wolverines earned the extra one to take them off the basement floor in the standings.