Norsemen Get Sunk

After a week 1 loss to the Lions, Brian Collins was desperate to get his first win as a captain in a few years, while Blake Isenor and his Norsemen had a win in opening week and were taking the Eurekas lightly.

 

Just seconds into the game, James Harrison got the puck in the slot but missed just low and wide with his shot.  The Eurekas responded with a 2 on 1 a minute later on which Carter Nickerson took the shot but was stopped by Phil Sprague.

 

Dylan’s Kugler and Rob Manteuffel tried to connect for a goal on a rush up the ice for the Norsemen, but Ashton Speight was equal to the task.  It wasn’t until Nick Marshall entered the zone at 13:15 that we opened the scoring.  He took a wrister from the ringette line that beat the glove of Speight to make it 1-0 Norsemen.

 

Brian Collins tried to rally the Eurekas with an end to end rush, but Phil Sprague’s glove was better than Brian’s shot.  The Norsemen immediately came back at the Eurekas and Jeff Miles’ point shot was stopped but the rebound sat right in front of him for a second while neither him nor Darren Ells could locate it.  Eventually Matt Anderson came in and tucked it under his goaltender’s pad to end the trouble.

 

The Eurekas had some zone time after the Norsemen failed to clear twice, but they got comfortable and Landon Miron was suddenly sprung on a 1 on 1.  His shot from the left wing hit the corner crossbar and then the rebound hit the outside of the post.  Could this be the TSN turning point?  This reporter thinks so.  Just 15 seconds after the Norsemen nearly went up 2-0 and crushing the hopes of the Eurekas, Dylan Warren deked through 3 Norsemen and finished it off with a shot low glove side on Sprague to tie it up 1-1.  The Eurekas seemed to build confidence from the goal and immediately got another chance.

 

Blake Isenor pulled off a Norm Gallantesque no-move at the blue line, then fed a great pass to James Harrison across the ice and his shot was denied by a great sliding glove save by Ashton Speight.

 

Ray Carrigan’s great move to get around Connor Slaunwhite was undone by a pass behind Dylan Kugler who was all alone in the high slot and would have had a week to get his shot off.  It wasn’t going the right way for the Norsemen at this point and with the a chance to clear their own zone a minute later, 2 missed chances to clear the puck ended up in the back of their net as Dylan Warren had an outlet psss go off his skate and right to Carter Nickerson who made the pass to Derick Levesque, who slid it five hole, not sure if accidentally or on purpose, to make it 2-1 Eurekas at 6:59.  The Eurekas would not be looking back from here.

 

Jake Rankin’s quick reflexes had a deflected point shot looking like an amazing tic tac toe passing play to make it 3-1, then Matt Anderson broke up a pass in front of his own net and sent Carter Nickerson on a breakaway.  Nickerson deked to his backhand, and it was the 4th Eurekas goal in a row after being down 1-0.

 

Anderson would give that assist back 20 seconds later when he tried to skate the puck out past Dylan Kugler, but Kugler stripped him of it, got the puck to Manteuffel who gave it back to Kugler and he got it through Brian Collins and then around Speight to bring the score back within 2.

 

In the second period, we saw a little jump from the Norsemen, and Darren Ells’ backhander went off the side of Speight and in and we had a game again at 4-3 for the Eurekas and 16:12 left to play.  Ells nearly got another on a rebound 30 seconds later, but Brian Collins got a stick in the way to deflect the puck over the glass and into the roaring crowd.

 

James Harrison had a partial break but Speight made a blocker save, and then the Norsemen kept giving the puck away in their own zone forcing Sprague to make some difficult saves.

 

Brandan Hawboldt had two good chances in the Eurekas zone but his first just missed the top corner and his second went off the side of the post.  The Eurekas cleared the puck up to Dylan Warren who did the rest himself, finishing off a rush with a shot that caught Sprague cheating across for the pass, and then 50 seconds later, Warren had a wide open net to shoot on after some nice Eurekas passing with the Norsemen D conspicuously absent from the area.  Any hope of a comeback died in that moment.  

 

Warren would setup Levesque from behind the net with just 7 seconds left in the game as the Norsemen got trounced 7-3, and Dylan Warren, in his first game in the league, vaulted himself into a tie for the league lead in points with 5.

 

The Eurekas will face the Greyhounds as they try to get a winning streak going, while the Norsemen will seek redemption vs the Evergreens in their next game.