Robin Hood - taking from the Norsemen giving to the Aurora

3 points separated the Aurora and Norsemen coming into Tuesday night’s action, with the Aurora holding those points.  The Norsemen would love to get the win and pull themselves even with the second place team, and pull out of their tie with the Lions, but they would need to play a solid game vs David Lacey’s team, a team with Josh McCarther filling in in goal.

 

The game began rather quietly with neither team looking like they wanted a win very much.  It took about 4 minutes to see a good scoring chance and that came when Andrey Gromov made a cross ice pass to Chris Ryder, who was beavertailing his stick so hard that Sherwood was questioning their warranty policy.  The pass got deflected to Matt Ryder instead and a Phil Sprague had to react quickly to make a pad save.  Chris Ryder would get a shot on goal 20 seconds later but Sprague stopped that too.

 

James Harrison had a nice opportunity going down the right win after the Aurora chance, but MCCarther denied that one calmly.

 

The Aurora got caught in their zone for a little after David Lacey gave the puck away at his blueline, but Nathan Bessey cleaned up his mess and passed to Bobby Sacre.  Bobby made a backhand pass up the middle, and despite where you think this is going, the pass was all sauce, no pizza.  A perfect pass to David Lacey for the breakaway.  He skates in all alone on Sprague and takes aim glove side.  The shot glances off the arm of Sprague and goes over the goal, the game remained tied at zero.

 

Matt Ryder snaked his way through the Norsemen and his shot went off the toe of Sprague and stated out as the Aurora were finding a little momentum.  Brandon Marsh made a pass to Lacey and it deflected off Lacey’s foot and on goal.  Sprague batted it away but not well as it just went up in the air and David Lacey batted it on the backhand, right into the top corner, with Robin Gareau trying to check him, to put the Aurora up 1-0 at 8:30 of the first period.

 

Not even 10 seconds later, Bobby Sacre was not the pizza delivery guy, but the guy placing the order as Gareau fed a pass up the centre of the ice right onto Sacre’s tape.  Bobby walked in and fired a shot into the crest of Phil Sprague.

 

Tyler Selvet nearly extended the lead but the puck sat in front of Sprague’s foot and he couldn’t bang in his own rebound.  The period would see no further scoring.

 

The first minute of the second period saw some action.  David Lacey narrowly missed the net wide (low this time), and then Landon Miron made a nice pass to James Harrison who was skating his ass off to be available for the back door pass.  He got there and tapped it in to tie things up.

 

The Aurora tried the quick response game but Sacre’s shot in a scoring position his Selvet right in the ass.

 

Josh McCarther would see a bit of a Norsemen barrage but held the door closed.  Mike Gilmore rushed the puck into the Norsemen zone and went behind the goal, throwing a backhand pass to the front of the net.  Well, sort of.  The pass was destined to sail away into the ether, but Robin Gareau was getting back to techs k him and the puck deflected right off his foot and out in front of the net as Phil Sprague followed Gilmore to the opposite side.  David Lacey was in the doorstep for the easy tap in.

 

Once again, the Norsemen wouldn’t go away.  James Harrison had a pass heading his direction while Mike Gilmore stepped up near the red line.  Harrison one hand tipped it up into the air.  Gilmore was looking everywhere for it and finally spotted Harrison with the puck as James entered the Aurora zone.  Harrison toe dragged Chris Ryder, but Ryder didn’t give up, no, he got danced a second time as Harrison cut back, then James tucked the puck under Josh McCarther to tie the game at 2.

 

Robin Gareau made his mark on the game once more, this time it was when Matt Ryder took a spinning shot in the high slot.  It first went off James Harrison and was going wide, but then it went off the foot of Gareau and right into the net.  

 

The Norsemen made a strong effort to come back in the game, but the Aurora shut just about everything down.  Josh McCarther however, absolutely saved the day when Darren Ells setup Nick Marshall for a one timer in the slot.  McCarther made a full splits sliding save with his right pad to keep the Aurora on top with just 27 seconds left in the game.

 

The Aurora took the 3 points and the Norsemen, tied with the Lions, will play the second of back to back games tonight, against those very same Lions, with the winner mocking away ahead in the standings.