Lions and Eurekas with a Tight Game

Closing out our opening week were the Eurekas and Lions. It was the Eurekas who struck first.  Just over a minute into the game, Glen MacDougall took a shot from the point which Carter Nickerson redirected in towards Trevor Pate.  The puck went off the back of Pate’s leg and bounced right back to Nickerson who shot it off the side of the net before regaining control and tucking it in for the 1-0 lead.

It wasn’t long before the Lions responded.  Dustin Hall stumbled coming over the boards on the line change, but it worked in his favour as the puck that was heading his direction went to the Eurekas defenceman who turned and blew a tire, leaving Hall with the puck and Taylor McKay going to the net.  Hall faked the shot and fed McKay on the back door for the game tying goal just 85 seconds after the Eurekas scored.

Keith Webb was presented a gift a few minutes later when a bad Eurekas pass went right to his tape in the slot.  Webb wound up a clapper that went bar down over Ashton Speight’s shoulder to make it 2-1 for the Lions.  The teams traded chances for a bit with Pate and Speight make some good saves.  Then Lions rookie forward Jarrett Carter skated his ass off to get to a puck that was dumped into the Eurekas zone.  He got it around the face-off dot and skated towards the net, out waiting Speight, he tucked it around the goalie for a 3-1 Lions lead at the end of the first.

In the second period, the Lions nearly added to their lead, but Hall and Warwick couldn’t decide who should take Andrew MacDonald’s pass on the back door, so neither of them tapped it in.  Then the Eurekas had some pressure with Jake Rankin doing a lot of work for no payoff.  With just under 7 minutes to play, Evan Ridley entered the zone and used Keegan Lewis as a screen as he shot, leaving Pate without a sight line as the puck beat him to make it 3-2.   

The Eurekas thought they tied it up a little later as Carter Nickerson dangled to the net.  He went down as he deked out Pate and tucked the puck in, but he hit the goalie and the net came off as he was scoring, so the referee called the goal off.  As the clock ticked down, the Eurekas pulled Ashton and went for the game tying goal, but couldn’t find it, and the Lions failed on about 5 attempts on the empty net from their own end as well, and the Lions took their first game of the year 3-2.

4 good hockey games kicked off the Nomad Hockey League season this week and we have 20 still to come.  It should be a good year.