Friday Night Madness

When David Lacey walked out of his dressing room 10 minutes before the Aurora were set to take on the Tigers, and announced that the Aurora didn’t have a goalie, eyes went wide.  9:30 on a Friday night and we were short a goalie.  The rink was full of minor hockey, our second game was more than an hour away, and it was looking like a forfeit or that the Aurora would play with 6 skaters.

 

After a brief discussion, it was decided the game would start with 6 skaters on the Aurora side while they waited for the goalie from the next game to show up.  Then we got word that someone had found a guy coming to play pickup and he could get dressed, but he would be late getting on the ice and would have to leave early.

 

So with one minor adjustment, calling icings, we started.  With Brandon Crowell in the lineup, the league’s leading scorer, this was looking like a possible points night.  The Tigers won the opening draw and went right into the Aurora zone.  Chris Stickings took a shot on goal, but Bobby Sacre got his stick on the puck for a goal line denial which brought about big cheers.  Some stuff happened in the Tigers zone, but not scoring and we are much more concerned about the no goalie situation.  

 

Chris Ryder stopped a Greg Renouf shot in the slot. (1), then Chris blocked a Kurt Thibault point shot (2).  Matt Ryder had a good scoring chance but Brandon Crowell got him with the backcheck as the bumped shoulders and Ryder went into the net.  Crowell went to the box.  The empty net minutes would start ticking away, but there are no icings when on the penalty kill.  The first long shot for the net went wide.

 

Chris Ryder fed Josh Beaudreau in the slot on the PP and his shot got just through McCarther but the Tigers goalie covered it up before it crossed the goal line.  Allan Beaton stripped Mike Gilmore of the puck in the Aurora zone and threw the puck in the empty net, but the whistle went for Beaton to get a hooking penalty.  Shane Whitman had a clear shot at the empty net on the PK but hit the side of the goal.  Norm tried from distance twice but got it knocked down both times. Then Matt a Ryder took a penalty and the teams went to 4 on 4, but no goalie, so Aurora 5 on 4 with the draw in the Aurora zone.  

 

The Tigers win the draw,Kurt Thibault hits the side of the net.  Chris Ryder goes into the crease.  He makes a skate save in a hard shot from Crowell (3),  then he drops to his knees and kicks out his left leg like a goalie to make another save (4), then knocks away one from Glenn Boyce (5).  At 9:41 a goalie skates out on the ice in a change on the fly, the score still tied at zero.  Chris Ryder with 5 big saves.

 

This game gets a bit less interesting now that it involves two goalies.  The new goalie makes a save on the first shot but the puck trickles to his left, out of his reach, but the Aurora get back first to clear.  At 7:22, Brandon Crowell hits the crossbar.  The Tigers do manage to strike first.  Bobby Sacre took a tumble behind the goal and the goalie didn’t see the puck get turned over.  Mike McIsaac nearly tucked it in from behind but it went in front instead as he got too excited.  Allan Beaton picked it up and got the puck back to Mike whose shot was stopped by the left pad, but Greg Renouf at 6:11, picked up the rebound to open the scoring.

 

Josh Beaudreau reversed the game’s momentum less than a minute later when he was on the tap in end of a Matt Ryder deke and pass.  1-1.  David Lacey had just as easy a tap in after Steve Power deflected a Chris Ryder point shot off the post.  The Aurora train was leaving the station and the Tigers were about to get run over. Goalie number 1 vacated the net for the Aurora after making 6 saves on 7 shots, and the Eurekas fill in goalie for the late game stepped in.  Adam Jarvis had a back door tap in to make it 3-1 and Bobby Sacre scored with 34 seconds left in the first, pushing the score to 4-1.  

 

David Lacey would get his second of the night with a one timer five hole while taking a hit.  Allan Beaton had a nice tip to make it 5-2, but Nathan Bessey sniped bar down to make it 6-2 and the Tigers couldn’t come back, eventually dropping the match 7-4. 

 

Both teams will face the Lions next week in their week off before the mid season break (aka the figure skating competition that stole our ice).

 

In our second game of the night, the Osprey were playing the Eurekas.  The Osprey were the heavy favourite and Mike Bourgeois got the party started with a half clapper over the right pad of the goalie at 11:21.  Scott Stewart would also score blocker side a couple minutes later to make it 2-0 Osprey.  The two goalies would stop every other shot as the Osprey outshot the Eurekas 16-10 in the first.

 

We’d take 10 minutes to see another goal in the game, and by then the shots were 23-16 for the Osprey.  Shot 24 was by Matt Simpson as he pulled a puck off the side of the goalie’s pad that the tendy thought he had covered, for a little tap tap taperoo into the net.  He’d get the next one too, this time the goalie was looking at his outstretched glove, thinking the puck was inside, but Matty was to the side burying his 19th of the season before the goalie knew it.

 

Seeing his captain counterpart score twice, Brian Collins, with 2 goals on the season, both in a game vs the Osprey, pulled the same move. First he buried a rebound at the side of the net, then he’d jam at a Carter Nickerson rebound before Baird kicked it in his own net.  The Eurekas scoring ended there, while Scott Stewart would add one more to bring the score to 6-2, the Osprey keeping ahold of first place.