Eurekas, Short on Bodies but not Spirit

The Eurekas and Norsemen kicked off our return to action on Tuesday night and the Eurekas were going to be for a tough one having only 8 skaters in the lineup.  It was however a nice little pizza delivery from James Harrison to Dylan Warren that gave us the first chance of the game.  Warren ripped a shot from the ringette line and beat the goalie, but not the crossbar.

Both teams were using backup goaltenders for the game, Aidan Durnford in the Norsemen goal, and ex-Falcon Caleb Gray in the Eurekas crease.

Pete Swistun has a golden opportunity in the slot for the Norsemen, but since it wasn’t a pass, he just shot for the chest.  Jake Rankin had a chance the other direction and as he burned Blake Isenor to the outside, he was about to shoot when Isenor got his stick in the hands of Jake, no call though.

Nick Marshall would take a pass from James Harrison and with one stride, he stepped into a better shooting position in front of the net and then backhanded it top corner to get the Norsemen the lead.  Just 14 seconds later, the Norsemen would strike again.  Zack Harrison picked off a Brian Collins pass and gave it over to Landon Miron.  Landon entered the zone on the left wing and went top shelf when he got near the faceoff dot.

The Eurekas were already looking tired but they still responded quickly,  Jake Rankin pushed the puck forward on the draw in his own zone.  Thomas Saunders tried to knock down the bouncing puck but couldn’t and Dylan Warren saw his chance.  He blew by Saunders and was all alone.  He shot blocker side and the goal cut the lead in half.  We wouldn’t see another goal in the period, though George Murray came close when his shot went off Durnford’s helmet and over the net, and Keifer Gladwin put a rebound inches wide of the post, but the best save of the period was probably the glove save Durnford made on Dylan Warren in the slot, throwing out the glove in a flash to shut down the opportunity.

In the Second, the Eurekas, who had been playing well, started strong despite their low numbers, but eventually cracks started to show as the Norsemen began to find more and more opportunities in the Eurekas end.  At 9:51, they broke through.  Up by a goal already, Darren Ells made it a 2 goal lead when his shot from distance caught Gray off his angle, thinking the puck was going wide as it snuck into the bottom corner.

It took less than a minute for the Eurekas to get that back and it was an awkward one.  Jake Rankin’s shot went off a stick and rainbowed up and over the goaltender and landed in the net.  The ugly goal seemed to fuel the Eureka’s legs as they were the better team again.  But you always need to watch out for the Landon train and it was rolling, with Brendan Hawboldt setting him on his way.  Landon was in alone and deked, finishing the move by going back against the grain to beat a sliding Gray.

The Eurekas kept on though, forgetting their deteriorating health.  George Murray won the draw in his own zone to Brian Collins.  Brian went end to end, finishing his play off with a pass back to George who went to the slot.  Murray shot the puck to his right, beating the goalie’s glove with 3:09 left in the second.  We had ourselves a 1 goal game and a good finish ahead of us.  Wellllll, just 19 seconds later, after Darren Ells was stopped on a one timer, Zack Harrison, lov the locak grinder’s union, went and got the puck, fed it around the goaltender to Miron and he took two shots, the second one beating Gray.  

The Eurekas were finally deflated, and just 18 seconds later the Norsemen struck again.  Zack Harrison on the second rebound after Ells couldn’t convert.  With a final push, the Eurekas would see the puck enter their zone only one time in the final 3 minutes, unfortunately for them, it was for James Harrison to score an empty netter as the Norsemen dropped the Eurekas by a score of 7-3.