The Nest Fell Out Of The Tree

The Evergreens rolled up to the rink on the back of the worst record in Nomad Hockey League history.  With just 1 regulation win, the only explanation is that they were sandbagging to get the matchup they wanted; the Osprey.  All season long, the Trees were well matched vs the Birds.  For some reason these games were very close.  So when league officials went to check on each team before puck drop, the Evergreens room was blasting the music and everyone was laughing and joking around.  The full lineup of players were all dressed and ready to go 20 minutes before puck drop, like a pewee game.  The Osprey dressing room conversely was sparse and quiet.  The lineup was short some bodies, and almost the whole team hadn’t started dressing by the time the Evergreens were ready.  It was all business, with full confidence that their winning record would carry on as it had all year long.

 

Silas Bonnell came out to play, looking to lead his team through his actions, he has 2 shots in goal, and nearly setup a one timer on his first shift as the Evergreens spend most of that shift in the Osprey zone.  On the next shift, Matt Simpson and Josh Stevens stepped into the ice for the Osprey and they started working their magic.  Simpson carried the puck across the ringette line and threw it back to Stevens who had snuck in behind some D.  The pass was a bit behind him but he grabbed it and whipped it on goal.  Jamie Wutke slid across and made the right pad save on the scoring chance.

 

Matt Simpson won a faceoff back to Stevens and his one timer was stopped as the Osprey began to build up some pressure.  Simpson got the puck behind the net and tried feeding Matt Pare in front, but Pare missed the pass.  Michael Bourgeois, always lurking, was there to grab the miss, and he quickly put the puck on goal.  It tinged off the post and stayed out, but the Osprey kept control.  Eventually a point shot was directed to the corner and Max Dewey, freshly back from some “Saw” style surgery on his toe, went to the corner to get the puck.  Matt Pare followed, and then buried Dewey into the boards.  Callum MacKinnon came in to defend his teammate, and the two offending players went to have a sit and think.

 

The Evergreens were struggling to get anything going offensively, but their team was working together to defend, like Silas getting a stick to stop a Josh Stevens one timer, or Tyler Carr diving back to knock a puck away from the crease.  However, the real story for the Evergreens was Jamie Wutke, as he was white hot, and it was frustrating the Osprey.

 

At 9:43, Tyler Carr sprung Michael Finlayson for what should have been a breakaway, but he didn’t account for Bourgeois backchecking him so hard.  Finlayson still got a good shot off that Matt Baird had to make a pad save on, but he didn’t have the time and space he thought he might.  The Osprey took the save and turned up ice. Rohan Dempsey rushed up as Nick Collins went to the net.  He took the pass and redirected it with one hand and a Wutke was there.

 

The next play was a rush for the Evergreens and Cobee MacNaughton had the puck on his stick.  Travis Hatcher slid to break up the pass and Cobee fired, forcing Baird to make a good glove save.  The play carried on up the ice with Ivan Kravchenko firing a shot.  Baird looked behind him to see the puck sliding to the goal line as it found its way under his arm.  With players going to the open chance, Baird spun around and got the puck just before anyone else could as the game remained scoreless.

 

Then Matt Simpson broke free of a Derek Hale chance in the rush and he cut to the net.  He tried to go around Wutke but lost the handle just as he was looking to shoot.  We were 10 minutes into the game and no-one had scored, but it felt like a goal was imminent as both teams started to produce more chances.  Rohan Dempsey put on his rocket boots and flew past everyone and took a dangerous shot that Jamie Wutke saved like it was the easiest thing in the world.  He made a big left arm save on Nick Collins off the draw as the Evergreens got hemmed in their own zone, and took a penalty.

 

The Osprey had one of the most dangerous power-plays in the regular season and were looking to keep that going.  Josh Stevens entered the chat and he fought through 2 defensive checks, then made a pass to Matt Pare, a man who couldn’t score a regular season goal to save his life, scoring zero this season, and only one the seasons before, but Playoff Pare took the pass, then buried it into the open cage with a loud celebration as he removed the monkey from his back.  The Osprey were up 1-0 and have had much success holding onto leads this season.

 

Directly back to applying pressure went the Osprey.  Stevens tried another back door pass to Pare, but this pass wasn’t as good and Pare couldn’t move to his backhand quickly enough to grab the puck, otherwise he had another open net to shoot at.  Josh Steven was still hanging around the front of the net when the puck came to him and he was untouched, just like the back of the net as he rang it off the post.

 

Kenny Shea blocked a Rohan shot with his foot in a key moment that rallied the Evergreens.  “Shoot for Shea” they were saying.  Blake Irvine immediately did shoot and it went off the bar and over the glass.

 

Josh Stevens was also looking to shoot for Shea when he picked off an Evergreens pass and came in with a clapper that Wutke fought off.  The rebound bounced to his right and Matt Simpson was there.  He swung and missed the bouncing puck as Wutke dove to the post, not having to make a save this time.

 

The Luke Hawrylak had a little oopsie.  He took the rebound from Wutke and went to clear the puck but fanned on it, leaving Matt Simpson all alone.  Simpson immediately shot the puck and Wutke made the save, as Matt lamented his decision not to deke.

 

As if that wasn’t a big enough save, Jamie Wutke put in his bid for save sequence of the year on the very next play.  A point shot came in and Rohan Dempsey got his stick on it just before it made its way to Wutke, and he then went backhand to the right of the netminder, forcing Jamie to kick his leg all the way out for a huge toe save, then Rohan got the rebound and Wutke moved farther to his left and made a second full extension kick save to keep the deficit to 1 goal.

 

The Forest was swaying like crazy on the bench as the Evergreens players couldn’t believe the performance they were seeing in their own net.  Then Blake Irvine let loose a howitzer as he entered the Osprey zone, but Matt Baird threw out the glove and snagged the puck which was labelled for the top corner.  It was encouraging for the Evergreens regardless.

 

The Osprey were on the power-play to start the second and Matt Pare nearly had his second power-play goal of the game as Nick Collins spotted him alone at the side of the net.  Pare redirected the pass on his backhand and off the outside of the post.  The puck went around to the D and their shot missed the net, hitting Rohan at the other side of the goal and he backhanded it on net but Wutke made a big slide across to shut him down once more as the goaltending clinic was in full effect.

 

Nick Collins was the one who got the puck all alone in the slot this time and his quick shot was denied by Wutke’s glove, another amazing save.  14:30 of hockey still remained and the Osprey were trying their best to extend the lead.

 

This is when the Evergreens elevated their game.  Cobee MacNaughton knocked an Osprey pass out of the air behind the Osprey net and he fed Blake Irvine with no-one within 40 feet of him.  Irvine tried to one time the puck but he fanned on it.  Then Zack Walsh’s point shot was tipped by Cobee and their rebound went back to Irvine. He fanned on it again!  This time however, he still directed it to the net and it went under the stick of a sprawling Baird and in to tie the game up.

 

The Osprey won the draw at centre, but Silas came in and swiped that puck away from Josh Martel and went in on Michael Bourgeois.  Bourgeois kept him outside and Silas elected to shoot.  His shot caught the bottom of Baird’s glove and then the back of the net.  6 seconds earlier the Evergreens were down and now they were up.  

 

An Evergreens power play looked pretty crappy at the start as the Osprey had the best chances, but they collected themselves.  Greg Bonnell knew what to do.  He saw that Blake Irvine was doing what he had been drafted to do, so he gave the man the puck and Blake wound up and released a 90mph slapshot that would have hit Baird right in the face if he hadn’t moved.  He did though, and the puck went off the crossbar and in, as Apples earned his nickname and the Evergreens were up 3-1, having scored their 3 goals in a 3 minute 9 second span.

 

Matt Simpson called a timeout to calm his team down, while the Evergreens bench took 30 seconds to listen to Derek Hale say things like “we’ve knocked the nest right out of the tree” and “branches are snapping and feathers are flying, boys”.  They were just having fun, being in unfamiliar territory with a two goal lead.

 

Matt Simpson was having another solid night in the faceoff circle as he won a draw to Josh Stevens.  Josh fanned at first but fired again, hitting Greg Moffat in the calf as things started to feel dire for the defending champions.  Then Josh Stevens got a clapper in from the high slot, but Wutke was there once more.  Then the Evergreens got another power play opportunity.  It was suboptimal, they didn’t even manage a shot on goal.  The Evergreens nearly added another goal, but Matt Simpson made a good defensive play to stop Max Dewey from getting to the puck with an open net.  

 

Following their 3rd goal, the Trees only put two pucks on goal, and neither went in.  The Osprey pulled their goalie with just under 2 minutes to go.  Matt Simpson got the puck behind the net and with room at the side of the net, he went to go out front but lost control, a metaphor for the game, and maybe the series?

 

With 45 seconds left, the Osprey sent 32 guys to the net and it was absolute chaos.  How Wutke kept all those shots out of the net, only the video will ever know, but he did and the Evergreens held on to clip the wings of the Osprey in game 1 of the 3 game series.  

 

You want drama, come check out this series when they play their second game on Tuesday March 17th at 10:15pm at the RBC Centre.