Round 2 Begins

Tuesday marked the entry into round 2 of the Nomad Hockey League playoff, with both series’ getting under way.  The Aurora were facing the Norsemen on rink B.  Both teams had wrapped up their first round the night before.  

 

9 seconds into the game, Bobby Sacre decides to test Phil Sprague’s readiness.  After the opening faceoff win, Sacre steps in and releases a heavy wrister from just inside the blue line and narrowly misses the net.  Message sent, the Aurora are gonna be shooters.  The same shift, Nathan Bessey gets the puck on the goal line and makes the pass in front to Steve Power.  Jeff Miles gets his stick on it and it’s no longer going to Power, it’s going to Bobby who has snuck in the back door.  Then the puck goes off Pete Swistun’s stick and now it’s going to the open net.  Swistun swings his stick and gets just enough of the puck to push it wide as Phil Sprague dives over to try to get it.  The Norsemen avoid the first shot goal.

 

Landon takes the puck coast to coast just after that and he rings a shot off the post past the glove of Logan MacLean, filling in for Nick Stryniak.  2 scoring chances, zero shots on goal in the first two minutes.  We’d finally get that first shot 30 seconds later, a little wrister from Josh Beaudreau which was easily handled.  That set off a spate of shots for the Aurora.

 

James McCarron went to clear the Aurora zone and Darren Ells, fresh off a big game 3, picked the pass off and would have had a clear cut breakaway if he had just waited a moment for Zack Harrison to get out of the zone.  Ells nearly setup a teammate in the slot with some backhand sauce on the next play but Steve Power, the Grinder from Gaetzbrook, came back to break up the play.

 

Chris Ryder was getting bored on D, so he decided to skate the puck out of his own zone with his head down.  Nick Marshall saw this and pounced, stripping Chris of the puck and going in all by his lonesome.  Classic forehand/backhand roof, and the Norsemen’s first shot on goal, was a goal.  1-0 at 12:30.  

 

Matt Ryder went to restore the family’s honour on the next play as he burned Pete Swistun, avoided the stick of Jeff Miles, and then left Phil Sprague sitting on the left post as Ryder whipped across to the right.  One problem for Matt though, he hit the post.

 

A minute later, the Norsemen went to clear their own zone and Nathan Bessey got a stick on the clearance. The puck went to Matt Ryder, he passed to Steve Power, who chipped it back to Ryder.  Matt shot, and then was able to shoot 3 rebounds before the puck popped back over to Power and he roofed it to level the score at 1.

 

Bobby Sacre then picked off a Norsemen breakout pass and tried going top glove, but old Spragguers snagged it.  Logan was getting little work at the other end, but a give and go between Landon and James Harrison forced him to make a good shoulder save.

 

Nick Marshall got hauled down trying to split Bobby Sacre and Chris Ryder, sending him sliding into and knocking off the net.  The Norsemen were not happy with the non-call, especially when Matt Ryder drew a penalty on a similar looking play shortly thereafter as he entered the Norsemen zone.  

 

Ryder managed to keep control of the puck and fired a shot that hit the corner crossbar.  Nathan Bessey collected the rebound and instead of shooting at the empty net, he passed to Steve Power who totally flubbed the one timer attempt.

 

Late on the power play, Adam Jarvis made a hard pass from the right wing boards over to Josh Beaudreau in the opposite circle.  Sprague came over and got set and a Josh beat him clean on the blocker side. 2-1 Aurora with just under 6 to go in the first.

 

With 3:00 on the clock, Big Game Gilmore went top corner with a point shot to put the Aurora up by a deuce.

 

The Aurora were dominating with triple the shots on goal, and quadruple the number of scoring chances, so it’s not surprising that the Aurora would pop in another goal, this time Matt Ryder from Bessey.   The Norsemen found little pockets of pressure, but couldn’t get their shots through.  Then David Lacey crosses the Norsemen blue line on a 3 on 2, and makes the call to take what amounts to a point shot… wide.  His teammates laughed on the bench, and then they laughed again a few minutes later when Bessey set Sacre up with an open net on the top of the crease and he put the puck back into Sprague’s pads, and then failed to get the loose puck as Brendan Hawboldt and Sprague got there first, but they wouldn’t be laughing when the Norsemen finally a way to pop one in a minute later.  

 

After David Lacey was shut down by Sprague on a breakaway, actually a 2 on 0, Nick Marshall finished off a passing play identical to a goal he scored the night before with James Harrison and Landon Miron.  4 minutes left and we had ourselves a 2 goal game.

 

The Norsemen came out with energy the next shift and put the pressure on the Aurora.  Landon found Darren Ells alone in front and Darren fanned on his first attempt while Logan was looking the wrong direction and he couldn’t get his second over Logan’s pad as Sacre closed in on him and cleared the puck.

 

That was it.  That was the shot the Norsemen needed.  With their goalie pulled, the two Aurora defensemen somehow ended up with a 2 on 1.  James McCarron passed to Bobby Sacre and he buried to make it a 5-2 final.  These teams will meet again tomorrow night in game 2.