Regulation Perfect

In first and second place respectively, the Osprey and Lions, were meeting for the second time this season on Tuesday night.  The Osprey have yet to lose a game in regulation and the Lions entered action with back to back defeats.

The Lions struck early when Jamie Richard’s shot was saved by Matt Baird, but the rebound hit Isaac Pelley in front.  The Lions nearly doubled their lead later in the shift when Keith Webb and Jamie Richard had successive chances in front, but Baird shut them down.  

Josh Stevens tied the game after picking up a rebound the was left behind on a Rohan Dempsey shot.  Connor Tousignant had en epic dive to try to stop Rohan, but he missed, so it is now in the epic fail category.  The Lions responded quickly with a 3 on 2, but Travis Hatcher made a great sliding play to break up a pass on the doorstep.

Michael Cunningham, with his new black bucket, almost gave the Osprey the lead on a rebound, but Kirk Levy got the shaft of his stick on the shot and stopped a goal.

The game was tight as neither team was finding much on the goaltenders until Dustin Hall put the puck through the legs of Matt Baird with 4:31 left in the first.  The Osprey took advantage of an optimistic breakout pass by the Lions with 90 seconds left.  Isaac Pelley picked the pass off, gave it to Josh Stevens and he handed it off to Rohan who beat Pate’s glove to tie the game up.

In the second period, we had the intensity ratcheting up and the teams played a little run and gun for a bit with no rewards.  With just under 10 minutes to play, Rohan Dempsey picked up a rebound in front of the Lions goal and shot it back into Pate.  The puck fell to his left and as he sprawled out to make a save in desperation, Scott Stewart got the puck and went to release a shot.  Keith Webb was there and batted the puck off the stick of Stewart with the stick and puck in the midst of a follow through, both stick and puck were in the air, but never made it to the goal.

It would be long before the Osprey got that goal though.  After sustained Lions pressure, the Osprey once again made the most of a failed clearing attempt.  Keaton Hicks fed a pass to Josh Stevens in front and Pate stopped his first shot with his blocker, but couldn’t contain the rebound which Steven knocked home to make it 3-2 Osprey.

Jamie Richard, after scoring on an odd bounce to start the game, decided to throw a clapper on goal from outside the blue line.  Dustin Hall saw him winding up and rushed to exit the zone, just crossing the line before Jamie released his shot.  The shot was mishandled by Baird and it went off his stick and pad to his right and ended up going top corner to his left to tie the game.

Fresh off a favourable bounce, the Lions felt good, finally having some luck, until right off the next draw, Scott Stewart lost his footing and bailed while Jamie’s stick was in the area of Scott’s stick and he got called for it, sending the Osprey to the PP.  They would get a bunch of chances but could score.  The penalty expired and the Osprey retained possession of the puck.  Rohan Dempsey passed across the slot to Matt Simpson who converted to give the Osprey the 4-3 lead with 2:34 remaining.

Matt Pare nearly had an empty netter with 25 second left, but Joey Richard dove back and knocked the puck away from the crease. It would be in vain though as the Osprey took the 4-3 win and remained undefeated in regulation.  The Lions loss opened the door for another team to move into second place.