Weekly Roundup

We finally had a week where each team had the same number of games, 1.  Monday night began with the White hot Wolfpack taking on the Voyageurs.  It would not be the night Jonny Bamford was looking for, for his Wolfpack.

 

Ryan Kinley started the game off for the Voyageurs by getting his second of the summer.  Derick Levesque also got his second to make it 2-0 before the Wolfpack’s Cy Young winner Rylan d’Entremont got his first of two on the night.  D’Entremont leads the Wolfpack in goals with 10, but has not yet picked up any assists.

 

With the next two goals, Cobee MacNaughton put the Voyageurs up far enough that the Wolfpack, despite scoring twice in the second, could not complete the comeback.  The Voyageurs win brings them to within one point of the Wolfpack for 5th place, though the Wolfpack have a game in hand.

 

The other Monday night matchup was between the Wolverines and Highlanders, teams at the opposite end of the standings.  The game was very close through the entire first period.  Then wolverines have struggled to find wins, but have been in every game they have played.

 

Greg Delano, the league’s leading scorer, opened the scoring 15 minutes into the game with his 21st, and Bryce Hirtle made it 2-0 with his 2nd in the final minute.  The second period would have a little more action as Isaac Pelley, the young rookie defenseman turning heads for the Wolverines, scored to get his team on the board a minute into the second, then the Wolverines leading scorer, Scott Stewart tied things up.  The Highlanders had lost their confidence as the Wolverines attacked, but Logan MacLean was playing well in net.

 

Taylor McKay scored to put the Highlanders up by a goal with 12 minutes left to play but 45 seconds later it was Andrew MacDonald tying it up once more as the result remained anyone’s to be had.

 

It was a magical moment that put the Highlanders up for good.  Bryce Hirtle let loose a clapper that actually WENT IN!  Silencing his critics, Bryce is likely to double down on slapshots from here on out.  Taylor McKay got the insurance marker, the first time he has had two goals in an NHL game.

 

With that goalie pulled, the Wolverines hoped to come back, but Ashley Leonard fired the puck all the way down the ice.  As players raised their sticks, they were crushed to see the puck go directly off the post and remain out.  The Highlanders win gives them full possession of top spot with no team able to catch them this week.  With 2 games remaining, they can top out at 30 points, while the Starrs and Astros and can only hit 27, so the Highlanders control their fate.

 

Wednesday night had the other two games of the week, with the Sable and Starrs up first.  Despite the game starting at 9:00, the Sable didn’t show up until the start of the second period.  It was all Starrs in the first.  Keaton Hicks shot a wrister under the blocker of Trevor Pate to open the scoring and the flood gates opened.  Arnel Araya redirected home a pass from Pat Oxner, then Kenzie Wadden, Pete Swistun, and Hicks once more, the last kne coming with just 10 seconds left in the frame.  It was 5-0 after the first.

 

A beauty stretch pass from Brennan Ware sent Daniel Davidson in alone and he broke Phil Sprague’s shutout at 11:50 of the second as the Sable awoke.  Jake Rankin had an easy tap in off a pass from Cole Stewart, and suddenly it was looking like the Sable could mount a comeback.  Pete Swistun crushed those hopes a bit when he made it 6-2 for the Starrs with his second of the night just 12 seconds later.

 

Jake Rankin wouldn’t give up for the Sable.  He responded with 5 minutes left, but that would be as close as the Sable would get.  Pete Swistun completed the hatty on the power play before zsilas Bonnell got one for the Sable to cap 5e night’s scoring.  The Starrs took the game 7-4, keeping themselves in 2nd place.  The Sable losing streak increases to 3 games, and they face the surging Astros next week.

 

Those Astros were facing the Falcons who were only looking at 8 players in their lineup.  It was a close game at the beginning.  Josh Beaudreau got the night’s first goal when Alex Murphy found hum in the slot and he redirected the pass over the pad of the outstretched goaltender at 14:34 of the first.  The Falcons responded as Keegan Clark got his first of the season off a pass from Matt Gendron at 8:27.  The Falcons lost a player to injury and had to move a forward back to defence, and that’s was around the time the game started to unravel for the purple and gold.

 

Darren Ells was lurking around the crease when Alex Murphy found him to make it 2-1, then James Harrison scored to make it 3-1 at the end of the first.  The Falcons were getting tired and lazy, and the Astros were taking advantage.  Darren Ells scored his second when he fanned on a shot that fooled Josh McCarther.  The Falcons weren’t dead at this point and Matt Gendron roofed a rebound chance to make it 4-2 at 14:57.  Spoiler alert, Jared Worth would not be beaten again for the Astros.

 

Landon Miron jumped at the chance to dangle some tired Falcons and he popped off with a natural hat trick, including the third one which was a beauty dangle and then a rocket of a backhander that went bar down over the shoulder of McCarther on the short side.  Darren Ells would complete the hat trick a couple minutes later when he swiped at a puck on a delayed penalty that the Falcons had cleared from the crease and expected a whistle.  The goal, and therefore the hat trick, will forever have an asterisk beside it.

 

Despite giving up 8 goals, Josh McCarther had an incredible game, especially the end where he made 5 incredible stops.  We don’t track shots on goal, but estimates put the goal shots for the Astros in the game around 60.

 

The Astros have scored 8 goals in each of their last 2 games and have positioned themselves in 3rd place, 1 point behind the Starrs and 4 back of the Highlanders.  The game in hand for the Astros could mean they shock the teams in front of them as they face only teams below them in the standings in their final 3 games, the Sable, Wolverines, and Voyageurs.  The Falcons 3 games remaining include 2 against teams ahead of them, the astarrs and Highlanders , and 1 vs a team that has beaten them, the Wolfpack.

 

We should be in for a strong finish to the regular season.