Eurekas - Addition by Subtraction

Closing out the week, the Aurora were looking to stomp the Eurekas and move into sole possession of 2nd place.  The Eurekas wanted to move away from 2nd last, and without their captain in the lineup, could they do it?

 

Things started slowly with no shots on goal until Nathan Bessey dumped a shot in from beyond the blue-line 90 seconds in.  It probably wouldn’t have been counted as a shot on goal, were it not for the events of the Lions game the night before.

 

Aside from that ‘shot’, the only thing happening in the first few minutes was Steve Power and Matt Ryder having a big collision at their own blue-line.  Then David Lacey tried a goal line shot on Ashton Speight but missed high.

 

Derick Levesque had the Eurekas first shot on goal a whole 3 minutes into the game as he rushed the puck and got in close before shooting on Nick Stryniak.  The puck was lost for a moment, but then cleared.  The game was boring.  No-one making any exciting plays, nothing to cheer for.  Then Chris Ryder just missed finding brother Matt sneaking in back door for a tap in.  The intensity suddenly amped up.  

 

Dylan Warren and Carter Nickerson were finding some chemistry for the Eurekas as Nickerson set Warren up in the slot twice in 10 seconds, but Stryniak denied him.  Josh Beaudreau went to clear the puck around the boards and the Eurekas blocked off the wall.  Rowan Ayers was there and tried to clear it, but couldn’t as David Lacey guarded the centre ice line.  The puck went down to Dylan Warren and he took a shot that Nick denied, so Warren did a spinorama and scored in the backhand to give the Eurekas a lead 6 minutes into.  The Aurora had only managed a single shot on goal to this point.

 

After a giveaway at the Eurekas line, Nathan Bessey had to turn around and beat Glen MacDougall to a loose puck to save a breakaway.  He did so by diving and knocking the puck away.  His dive cleaned more ice thatn the Zamboni driver did before the game, and it ended up in a near scoring chance for the Aurora as David Lacey sent a pass into Josh Beaudreau who had snuck behind everyone, but the puck bounced off the top of the blade of his stick and out of danger.  Josh went back to playing D and when the puck rimmed around to him, he took a shot that surprised everyone as it clanged off the crossbar and out of play.  Just over 8 minutes into and the Aurora were still sitting on a single shot on goal, while the Eurekas had 7.

 

Kyle Publicover then decided to make things fun by giving the puck away to a Lacey who had a 1 on 1 with Levesque.  Knowing his limits, Lacey shot the puck.  Then on the rebound he sent the shot just wide as the Eurekas retained their lead.  The 1 goal lead wouldn’t last though.  With a great breakout and passing, Ryan DeWolfe had the puck skating through the slot and sent a shot back across the grain and beat Stryniak to make it 2-0 Eurekas.  The Aurora were getting frustrated.

 

Lacey then won a puck battle in the corner and Nathan Bessey took his pass. With plenty of time, he glided out from the bottom of the circle selling shot all the way.  Everyone thought he would turn it into a fake and then deke, but he saw some room on the glove side and fired a wrister.  Ashton Speight took away the opening and snagged the puck with his glove, easily his best of his 5 saves to this point.

 

The teams traded chances via in front scrambles, and then the Aurora looked to have some jump in their step.  Matt Ryder tipped a point shot just wide, then he just missed Adam Jarvis wide open at the edge of the crease.  

 

Carter Nickerson had a good chance off the rush for the Eurekas but Stryniak made the blocker save.  Then Speight made 2 big blocker saves on a delayed penalty call after Lacey took a little tappy tap to the hands.  As he waved his hand like a 5 year old swing their mummy from across the playground due to the slash, the Eurekas bench huddled together and decided on some chirps for David.  They then executed operation “Even Up”, hurling basic chirps that lodged under Lacey’s skin.  David responded, threatening to punch some heads in as he skated past and the returned to the Eurekas bench to say his piece.  It got him an unsportsmanlike and the penalties were evened up.

 

The Aurora watched Matt Ryder deke the whole Eurekas team but not score and then they watched as a shot to the net from the corner was tipped away from the goal by Speight and right off the back of his own player’s skate to Andrey Gromov.  His shot was low and Speight got his foot on it, but Adam Jarvis was in the exact right spot and he immediately shot the rebound along the ice. It went through the crease and off the far post, but fortunately for him, the puck went across the goal line after hitting the post as the shutout was now gone.

 

Lacey, back to the ice after his troubles, stole the puck from Ryan DeWolfe and fired a shot on goal which was tipped by Jarvis.  Speight had to make a tough save to keep it out.  His team then gave him some support.  Dylan Warren fought off three checkers and Evan Ridley scooped up the loose puck and put it in to give the Eurekas the 3-1 lead with 13:17 to go.

 

Steve Power took a beauty sauce pass from Nathan Bessey in front but couldn’t control it.  It bounced to the side of the goal and Matt Ryder was a fraction of a second too late to the loose puck in front of the open net as the Eurekas cleared it.

 

Chris Ryder found Matt skating to the net and hit him with a perfect pass.  Matt dropped to one knee and took a cross body one timer.  Ashton slid across and got the blocker up to deny one of the nicer goals of the season.  It was wave after wave of Ryders coming at the Eurekas, but it was Carter Nickerson who showed them how to finish.  He was coming in hard and deked around Stryniak to tuck in his 6th goal of the year.

 

Stryniak wasn’t giving up though as he made a big glove save on Dylan Warren look easy. By now the shots on goal were level at 21.  When your team has Matt Ryder, you never count yourselves out, and Matt showed everyone why on the next shift.  He moved up ice and with George Murray in front of him, he fired through Murray’s legs and Speight couldn’t react quickly enough as the puck zipped past his blocker to make it 4-2 Eurekas.

 

 2 minutes later Bobby Sacre made a pass to Matt from behind the net.  Ryder took it off his skate and made a swift motion across the net with traffic and backhanded it past the glove of Ashton.  This game was now within a goal as the Eurekas were stuck trying to hold the lead.

 

Carter Nickerson picked a pocket at his own blueline and as he skated up ice, he saw Dylan Warren.  The pass came from nearly the goal line and it took Dylan 2 shots but he got the goal to restore a 2 goal Eurekas lead.  Jake Rankin would add an empty netter as the Eurekas secured the big upset victory.  

 

6 of the league’s 8 teams currently sit within a 4 point range in the standings, and that’s will remain the case no matter how tonight’s Norsemen/ Evergreens game goes, in what has been an incredibly tight season so far.