No-One Catches These Tigers By The Tail

Matt Simpson and his Osprey were taking on Norm Gallant and the Tigers in their last game of 2026.  The Tigers had been surging on the back of Gallant’s infamous walk of shame on Kyle Weatherbee, while the Osprey still hadn’t lost in regulation.  

 

The Tigers, known to be a 3 line team which finds strength in numbers, were nearly at capacity, while the Osprey were short some key support structure like Matt Pare, Greg Moffat, and Dorian Brooks.  

 

Scott Stewart got the first shot of the game on Tigers’ Josh McCarther, but it wasn’t high quality.  Immediately back up ice, Kurt Thibault set up Ron Beaton heading alone to the net, but he mishandled the pass, so a better scoring opportunity, but no shot, that would come to Allan Beaton 10 seconds later.  A misjudged bounce off the wall by the Osprey and Allan one timed the loose puck from the slot.  Matt Bird made a kick save with his right pad as his first save of the night.

 

After Osprey D Mya Ferguson pinched to hold a puck in and missed, she turned around to see Josh Stevens covering her point.  He one timed the puck on net and McCarther stopped it, then Rohan Dempsey on the rebound.  The puck went behind the net as McCarther fought off a second Rohan chance, and then Matt Simpson setup basically in the crease.  The puck came to him as McCarther dove across to make the save, but it was too much and Simpson had an easy tap in on an open net.  1-0 Osprey.

 

Justice was swift as the Josh Stevens tried to be fancy on the breakout and Brandon Crowell announced himself as he got right in Stevens’ face and knocked the puck away.  Then Brandon collected the puck in the corner and hit Greg Renouf in the slot for a one timer which went under the pad of Baird to tie the game up on their second shot, a mere 15 seconds after the Osprey scored.

 

With just under 12 minutes left, Matt Simpson got in alone and he tried going blocker side but just missed the Tigers net.  As the puck worked around, the Tigers had a good chance down low as Kurt Thibault got a shot that Baird made a difficult save on.  At this point in the game, the shots were tied at 5 apiece.  We were getting into run and gun here though as we went back to the Tigers zone, Rohan got shut down on by McCarther on a deke but Matt “The Lurker” Simpson ended up straddling the goal line and got the rebound, scoring from a difficult angle as McCarther tried to get back to make the save.  McCarther would pull the net back onto its moorings as the faceoff went to centre, and he would wonder if the net being on would have made a difference.  Simpson 2, Tigers 1.

 

The goal would be Matt Simpson’s 50th of his Nomad career.  He would be feeling pretty good about things, but changes would be coming.

 

Kurt Thibault would miss the net by 3 feet and then shoot into the bread basket of Baird as the Tigers applied a little pressure, but the Osprey still maintained control of the game.

 

Glenn Boyce, wearing another man’s pants, broke up an Osprey chance in his own zone and then went for a change.  Brandon Crowell would do the rest.  He got a shot on goal, and then followed up with the rebound to get tie the game at 2.

 

Matt Simpson had a golden opportunity to complete the hatty just 35 seconds after the Tigers goal.  Rohan Dempsey passed him a puck from behind 5he net and Josh McCarther made the huge pad save as he did a full extension, one of a few 10 bell saves on the night as the Osprey were taking a big lead in shots as they hit 15 in under 9 minutes.

 

Kurt Thibault had a delicate redirection to make it 3-2 Tigers and Allan Beaton made it 4-2, and Dan Keays was set free and a little shoulder fake and shot top shelf made it 5-2 as the Tigers scored thrice in 58 seconds.

 

Brandon Crowell one timed a shot in from a tough angle to start the second as the Tigers went up by 4.  Matt Simpson came out from behind the Tigers net on the power play and backhanded one along the ice for the hat trick, but his stick would break the next shift, and with his magic wand gone, he wouldn’t find the back of the net again in 2025.

 

The Tigers were being heavily outshot, but making the most of their chances as Crowell would snipe far side, then backhand roof to close out a big 8-3 victory.  A Christmas present to the league said Norm Gallant, the Tigers handing the Osprey their first loss in regulation.

 

With the victory, the Tigers move up into 2nd place for the holidays, the Osprey remain in the league leaders.