Crowell Under Pressure

Brandon Crowell and the Tigers were facing off vs the Eurekas last night at the RBC Centre in Dartmouth.  Social media was abuzz with questions about Crowell’s performance as fans placed bets on whether he would go above or below 3.5 points.  

It took 2 minutes to see a good scoring chance.  Kurt Thibault fought off a check and tried the Forsberg deke, which he put off the outside of the post.  Most of the shots were coming from the outside after that, until the Eurekas took a penalty.  The Eurekas won the draw but Brian Collins’ clearing attempt went to Glenn Boyce at the line.  Boyce saw Dylan Warren pressuring and decided to just basically give Dylan the puck and chase him, like a dog returning a stick and then wanting to go for a run.  Dylan skated down the right wing and cut across the goal mouth with a deke to the backhand which opened the scoring.

Ron Beaton had a beauty of a chance on the PP but Speight’s blocker was fast and he knocked the puck away.  Then his brother Allan tipped a Normy G point shot, but the tigers couldn’t find an answer.  Derick Levesque nearly extended the lead for the Eurekas after the penalty expired but Josh McCarther was the better man, absorbing the shot.

Brandon Crowell nearly ties the game on a shot from the boards.  It bounced around Speight’s arm and pad and dropped behind the goaltender in the crease.  The Tigers yelled about a quick whistle, but none of them were close enough to make a play on the puck anyway as Matt Anderson was in the crease about to clear it.

Anderson would take a hooking penalty on Crowell and on the ensuing power play, Brandon would come out of the corner, skate to the middle of the ice around the ringette line, and release a wrister that went top corner.  The game was tied with 5 minutes left in the first.

Momentum swung in the tigers favour as they maintained possession for the next few minutes, getting plenty of chances and shots, but a backhander by Dan Keays in the slot was the one that hit the back of the net to make it 2-1 Tigers.  Dylan Warren nearly got his second after fighting through three checks and then getting a shot off that was labelled for the top corner.  However, Josh McCarther casually blockered it away.  The first ended 2-1 Tigers.

For the first few minutes of the second, the Eurekas were the much better team.  One shift alone saw Carter Nickerson and Dylan Warren with 3 shots apiece.  With  minutes gone in the period, Dylan a Warren got open and one timed a clapper.  McCarther slid across and denied what would have been a nice goal.

Norm’s orange Wagons were coming back at the Eurekas and on a 3 on 2, Kurt Thibault made a beauty little sauce pass to Allan Beaton, and he one timed it in to make it 3-1 Tigers.  Just 30 seconds later, after the Eurekas D failed twice to clear a rebound, Greg Renouf tucked a no look backhand in on the rebound, the puck barely crossing the line as Speight was out of position on the opposite side of the crease and Brian Collins tried a foot first slide that didn’t help much either.

The puck was dropped at centre and the Eurekas won it.  Two quick passes and Derick Levesque was rushing in with the puck and he ripped a wrister blocker side to get one for the Eurekas.  

It would be a fight for the rest of the game as the Eurekas tried to claw their way back into the game.  They got a power play and couldn’t make good on it.  Then they got another power play, but it didn’t go as planned either.  Brandon Crowell got the puck for the Tigers and then dangled Connor Slaunwhite as Brian Collins gave a 10% effort on the check and Crowell deked around Speight for the shorty.  He becomes the first player to score a Power-Play goal, and a Short-Handed goal in the same game. (We believe).  It was his 2nd point of the game.  Combine that with the 3 points the Tigers took home, that makes 5 on the night.