“Screw Scoring” - Wutke and Stryniak

It was the Evergreens vs the Aurora on rink C on Tuesday night and the Evergreens entered the zone off the opening draw.  A puck was coming to Dave Matthews who forgot how to skate backwards and fell at the top of the crease.  Ivan Kravchenko was slow to react and could only knock the puck away to the corner, otherwise he would have had an early scoring chance in the slot.  One Aurora rush up the ice and the Evergreens were back.  Michael Finlayson tried to throw a puck to the net by put Bobby Sacre deflected it and started to fly to zone as the puck floated to the net.  Matthews had been watching the Jays and unfortunately his game was starting as the Jays game ended.  He bobbled the puck and Derek Hale grabbed it and fired a slapshot from the hash marks.  Nick Stryniak was quick to react and made the right pad save.  Not the best opening minute, but don’t worry, the world was out back in order when David Lacey, covering the point, fired a clapper high and wide a minute later.

At 14:17, Nathan Bessey fired a shot from the top of the circle which was blockered away to Chris Ryder whose shot just missed the top corner as he tried to fill to void left by Matt Ryder’s absence.  The scoring in this game would be limited however as the defense were playing well.  Mike Gilmore and Josh Beaudreau were playing like seasoned veterans, taking turns rushing the puck while making sure to shut down everything coming their direction.  Gilmore had more shots on goal last night than all last season, though his goal total didn’t budge as per usual.

At the 8 minute mark of the first period, we had the biggest hit in Nomad Hockey League history when Dave Matthews cleared a puck to Nathan Bessey at the blue line.  Tyler Carr stepped up and got a piece of the puck and it sailed into the air.  As he moved forward to grab it, his Evergreens teammate Callum MacKinnon was coming up the boards with the ref in his way and as he stepped around the ref, he went right into Carr and the both men went down hard.  Carr got back up, caught the next clearing attempted and skated to the slot where he overskated the puck and no scoring chance happened.

With 8:30 left in the first, Luke Levangie grabbed a clearance off the boards by Mike Gilmore in the neutral zone and as Gilmore tried to defend, Levangie deked and Gilmore was diving after him to no avail.  Luke came into the Aurora zone and his wrist shot beat Stryniak’s glove to give the Evergreens the 1-0 lead.

A couple minutes later and Silas Bonnell was sent flying as he crossed into the Aurora zone and zone, but Blake Irvine picked up the loose puck and drove the net.  His backhander was stopped by Stryniak’s blocker before the Evergreens regained possession, leading to a Bonnell wobbly one timer attempt.  From there the bulk of the play would be in the Evergreen’s zone, but without any great scoring chances.  Then the puck would move up ice in a 2 on 1 with Max Dewey carrying the puck.  He made an attempt to get a pass to Silas as Bobby Sacre slid to break the play up, but the pass was too high and the odd man rush amounted to nothing.

Chris Ryder nearly tied the game as he sent a shot off the outside of the post and then got it back again and had his shit deflected just over the net.  Mike Gilmore would get 2 for tripping as the time wound down on the first and the Evergreens took the 1-0 lead and the power-play into the second.

Spoiler alert, the power play sucked and failed to produce much.  The Aurora pushed for the tying goal, but a pinch led to Silas Bonnell ripping up the ice towards the Aurora goal.  He was unfortunately met with someone bigger than him.  Of the 127 players in the league bigger than him, it was Justin Langille, and Silas bounced off him and wide of the net, just like the puck did.  The Evergreens followed that up with a couple minutes of pressure, but then the Aurora finally decided to bear down.

Chris Ryder took a pass in the neutral zone and skated to the left wing where he went inside-outside on Kenny Shea and then once around him had just Jamie Wutke ahead of him.  Wutke was working on the shutout but Ryder messed that up with a great shot across the net and into the top corner of the goal to tie the game at 11:45 of the second.  Mike Gilmore nearly made it 2-1 just 20 seconds later, but Wutke was able to fight off his shot to the glove side.

Silas got a little to eager to play the puck as he came onto the ice and he thought he had a breakaway, but the man he was changing for was still out there too, so the Evergreens were on the penalty kill and the Aurora would have had the lead were it not for a diving Wutke who needed to react to a Chris Ryder tip in front. He got to the puck just before Adam Jarvis could bang it into the open net.  While the Aurora had a strong power play, with half a dozen shots on goal, they couldn’t find the back of the net, and with a few seconds left, they gave up and odd man rush which Silas couldn’t convert on at the end of it after taking the nice backhand sauce pass from Tyler Carr.  This would prove to be a crucial squandered opportunity.

A harmless looking point shot from Dave Matthews who had started the game with some difficulty, turned into the Game Winner when Adam Jarvis, at the side of the net, redirected the way wide, low shot into the top corner on his backhand.  The Aurora remain undefeated after 2 games, while the Evergreens still seek their first win.