Barn Burning

The Astros and Starrs had a big tilt on Wednesday night and there was zero hesitation to get things going.  16 seconds into the game.  Yes, 16 seconds was all it took for the Astros to strike.  The Starrs have a habit of cheering for their goaltender, Phil Sprague’s stopping of the first shot of the game, and they wouldn’t have had a chance to bang their sticks once with how quickly James Harrison put Landon Miron’s rebound in on the second shot of the game.  If that want painful enough for the Starrs, Miron scored just 8 seconds later.  2-0 Astros 24 seconds into a game has to be a record.

You may have felt this was about to be a massive blowout, but the Starrs responded immediately, and 11 seconds later JJ Cardinal scored to make it 2-1.  Matt Simpson was starting to worry his game sheet wouldn’t be long enough for all the goals.  The game cooled off after that, sort of.

JJ Cardinal tied the game up at 12:25 of the first period.  Mitch Hamilton completed the momentum switch when he scored with 8:49 to play in the opening period.  Kenzie Wadden got himself on the board with 1:48 left, and the Astros, well they took that personally.  Landon Miron powered through and grabbed one goal back 10 seconds after Kenzie’s goal, and then with 50 seconds left, James Harrison got his 2nd goal, and 4th point of the period as we went through the full 17 minutes with each team scoring 4 times and leaving us sitting deadlocked to start the second.

Harrison opened the scoring in the second as part of a run of 3 goals in a row for the Astros.  Kenzie Wadden got another to make it 7-5 for the Astros, so the Starrs pulled their goalie in an attempt to get back into the game, but the other Harrison, Zack, put the puck in the empty net as the Astros took the 8-5 victory, positioning themselves in 4th place, but with a game in hand on 2 teams ahead of them.  Landon Miron’s 6 point night puts him just 4 behind league leader Greg Delano who has played 1 more game than him which means the race is on!

After that barn burner, the Sable and Wolfpack game would see less scoring right. Right?!?  Well the first 30 seconds passed and there were no goals, so the game was obviously a boring one.  A minute, nope no goals.  2 minutes, none, 2 and a half, still nothing, what in the goalie battle is going on here?  2:51, that’s when Brennan Ware pumped up the volume in the house as he ripped one past Nick Comeau for the 1-0 Sable lead.  The Wolfpack’s Conor MacLean put in a solo effort to tie the game up and then Kurt Thibault kept his personal scoring rampage going as he put the Wolfpack up 2-1.  3 goals scored after 6 minutes of play, ok, this thing was turning into an exciting game.

Both of these team’s previous games were against the Falcons, and while the Wolfpack got their first regulation win in their game, the Sable were short a single player when they lost to 7 Falcons skaters, so they wanted to turn things around, while the Wolfpack were looking to keep their play going.

Cole Stewart tied the game up with just under 7 left in the first as the Sable got some confidence going, but the Wolfpack were on the hunt and Jonny Bamford and Kurt Thibault scored before the first was done and the Sable were crushed.

Down 4-2 after 1, the Sable were not having any luck getting back into the game until Riley Hurlbert, this time playing out, got the Sable within 1 at 11:23 of the second.  Hope floated through the Sable bench, until Jonny Bamford stole it with his second goal of the game.  His Wolfpack would score twice more as the Wolfpack put together a 2 game regulation winning streak, helping them leapfrog 2 teams in the standings as they were propelled from 7th to 5th.