Greyhounds and Norsemen Get Started

Our second opening night of the week showcased Blake Isenor’s Norsemen and rookie captain Connor MacPherson’s Greyhounds. Logan MacLean of the Greyhounds, fresh off winning the Fall Face-Off, continued a tradition he probably will want to halt in the future. 1:05 into the game, Landon Miron came in alone on him and put the puck through his legs, thus allowing the first shot of the season to beat him again. Logan will hold on to the fact that after doing so in the past, he has had standout seasons. The next golden chance came from the Norsemen again, a 2 on 1 that ended with Pete Swistun showing us why he’s a disher as his shot went right to the crest of Logan. The teams were feeling each other out, they were getting used to new linemates and the shots weren’t the most plentiful as people were being too kind to each other, though Greyhounds kindness was extended to Zack Harrison, probably because he brought everyone Fireball before the game. Zack was delivered a pizza up the middle and he had a great scoring chance, but much like Swistun, he shot it right into the chest of MacLean. Maybe the deal isn’t bad shooters, maybe it’s just good goaltender positioning. The Greyhounds then turned the puck around and up the ice goes Greg Delano who dekes around everyone gets a shot on the pads of Phil Sprague, and then the rebound, but Sprague denies him twice to keep the score 1-0 for the Norsemen. With the face-off in the Greyhounds zone, Landon Miron won the draw forward and James Harrison drove to the back post where he had the tap in off Miron’s pass. 2-0 Norsemen with 4:46 left in the first. Then right off the draw the Norsemen came back on the rush and a few nice moves later and Logan Maclean was making a full stretch save to shut it down and give his team hope. The Norsemen had been controlling much of the play to this point, but that was about to change. The Greyhounds had their first major puck possession in the Norsemen zone. Robin Gareau made a great sliding shot block with the heel of his foot to deny a good scoring chance, but then Noah Joncas got the puck at the point and fired a shot through traffic and it couldn’t have been placed any better. It went right into the top corner above the blocker of Sprague who didn’t know it was in until he saw the Greyhounds players raising their arms in celebration. With 2:12 left in the period, the Greyhounds had life. The Norsemen led 2-1 with 16 shots on goal to the Greyhounds 12 after the first period. Blake Isenor started the second by giving the puck right to Greg Delano, but was able to recover and stop his advances and he cleared the zone. James Harrison skated up ice and took the puck to the left wing corner. He dropped the puck to rookie forward Rob Manteuffel whose shot on goal went off the skate of a Miron and in to make it 3-1 early in the second. A point shot from Thomas Saunders was redirected by Pete Swistun in front of the net, and although Logan made the save, his rebound went right to Zack Harrison who one timed the puck off the side of Logan and in for a two goal Norsemen lead. With just over 12 minutes to go, Greg Delano got the puck in the Norsemen zone and circled the zone, ultimately firing a low percentage shot from nearly the goal line, but with almost no room, he sniped a beauty of a goal to bring the Greyhounds back within 2 goals. Connor MacPherson got his first goal as a captain with 10:53 left in the game as a Noah Joncas point shot went off a body in front snd right to him with a gaping net. With the score 4-2, it was still anyone’s to win. Darren Ells took a feed from Robin Gareau and threw the puck across the ice to Ray Carrigan whose hard work paid off. He won the race to the puck and fought off a check halfway down the ice until he ultimately roofed a shot short side over the glove of MacLean. 5-3 with 7:44 left. Just under 4 minutes left and Kyle Gouthro’s good stick broke up a back door pass and a little touch from Bryan Gillis to Greg Delano and the Greyhounds were off on an odd man rush. Delano took it all the way down and found Noah Joncas on the back door for the easy goal to make it 5-4. The Greyhounds tried to come back as best they could, but after pulling their goalie with just over a minute to go, they couldn’t even muster a shot on goal as they fell to the Norsemen by a score of 5-4. Phil Sprague made 22 saves in victory while Logan MacLean made 28 in defeat.