The Nomad Cup on the Line

After 2 games that saw the Tigers and Aurora only scoring twice each, we were heading into the 3rd and deciding game for the Nomad Cup.  Norm Gallant vs David Lacey.  The Tigers and Aurora were both close to winning, but had their hopes dashed by Nathan Bessey and the Osprey, though this time around, Bessey was on the Aurora, and David Lacey was hoping Bessey would be the good luck charm he needed.

 

45 seconds into the game, Steve Power of the Aurora drops a pass to Bessey, but Shane Whitman is there to bang it away a fraction of a second before it arrives at its intended target.  Chris Stickings picks it up and sees Brandon Crowell well behind everyone at the opposite blueline.  He hits him with a pass and Crowell enters the Aurora zone with Chris Ryder, Matt Ryder, and Bobby Sacre all skating in cinematic unison towards him.  Crowell knows that they are going to catch him, so he unloads a bomb from the faceoff dot to the left of Nick Stryniak.  The puck slams off the post as goes under Nick’s glove.  Then it bounces off Stryniak’s right foot, but right to Sacre who clears.  Crowell feels like he may be cursed.  On only 4 occasions in the regular season did he fail to score, one was vs the Greyhounds and the other 3 were all vs the Aurora.  He also didn’t score in game 1 or 2 of the finals.

 

30 seconds later, that curse was looking more real.  Nathan Bessey fed a pass to Steve Power in the slot, and he quickly found David Lacey at the side of the goal.  Lacey quickly whipped the puck around with a low shot, and he beats Josh McCarther to make it 1-0 Aurora 1:15 into the game.

 

This game was being tightly contested, and as we neared 4 minutes, we only had a single shot on goal.  Brandon Crowell was trying to change that, but since the Aurora had keyed in on him so well, he’d need to do something different.  That ended up being passing.  He hit Dan Keays in the slot and Keays’ shot was low and hard.  Stryniak’s first save of the game was a good one as he kicked out the right pad.

 

It was looking as if the Aurora had every confidence in the world that this was their game.  They were dominant, just throwing the puck around the Tigers zone like it was a power play.  The Tigers survived.  Kurt Thibault was out with an injury, so Crowell was put of players to pass to, so he shot from a foot off the goal line, just below the circle.  It was along the ice and Stryniak had the post covered.  The shot went along the ice and under the left pad of Stryniak and into the back of the net.  1-1 with 10:23 left in the first period, and Crowell’s Aurora curse was over.

 

With Eric Blanchard and Nathan Bessey both reaching for a loose puck, the two collided and both went down.  When they got back up the whistle was being blown and Blanchard was heading to the box.

 

Everyone knows how well the Aurora power-play works, and Chris setup Matt Ryder in the slot, he one timed a shot that McCarther made a good blocker save on.  That would be the best chance on the PP as the Tigers killed it.  Shortly after, Greg Renouf made a pass across the Aurora zone to a rested and free Eric Blanchard.  Eric shot high blocker side but Nick Stryniak got his shoulder on it and covered the rebound.  He’d have to make a left pad save after a giveaway in his zone 30 seconds later.

 

Dan Keays would head to the box as he got called for body checking as he took the puck and was met by a smaller Chris Ryder who went down hard in the play.  The Tigers were on their back heels when they went down by two men.

 

Bobby Sacre got the puck at the left point then hit Bessey with a pass at the right of the goal.  Down on one knee, Bessey shot.  McCarther slid over to make the stop, and with a good chance, Josh Beaudreau had his stick lifted to save a possible goal.  The Tigers cleared but only to the line as Sacre grabbed it.  Bobby went back to Bessey who this time held it and slowly walked into a better scoring position.  Using Glenn Boyce as a screen, Bessey shot.  His wrister was low glove side and good.  2-1 Aurora with the 2 man advantage goal.

 

After the Tigers killed the penalty, they had Rowan Ayers coming off the bench and he walked right into a centring pass which he tee’d up the clapper on, but he couldn’t put it into the net.  He’d then force a turnover and feed Chris Ryder at the point.  His shot would be stopped and the puck sent north to a streaking Shane Whitman who would have been all alone if Chris Ryder hadn’t gotten a piece of the pass, forcing Whitman to look for it in his skates long enough to get caught by the Ryder brothers.  Whitman did keep the puck and Allan Beaton took the pass from him and sent a shot in on net which Stryniak got his toe on.   

 

As the first period came to a close, Allan Beaton made a go at a wraparound but couldn’t make it work.  2-1 Aurora after 1.

 

The Tigers got a power-play of their own in the first minute of the second period as Mike Gilmore took Greg Renouf down beside the net.  Their power-play was pretty atrocious as they didn’t get a sniff of the Aurora goal, and therefore got no closer to tying the game.  

 

Rowan Ayers, having the game of his life, made a cross ice pass to Tyler Selvet whose shot narrowly missed the net.  Back the opposite direction, Allan Beaton thought he might get a breakaway, but Chris Ryder closed the gap and Beaton cut back, Ryder on his hip the whole way.  Beaton fought off the checks and went behind the goal.  Shane Whitman skated right to the crease as Aurora players didn’t check him, but he was just a decoy, Beaton made it all the way around the goal and wrapped it in to make it 2-2.  This was anyone’s game once more, and there was still 13:14 remaining.

 

Matt Ryder immediately got a chance to put the Aurora up.  He cut into the slot and fired a wrist shot that McCarther made a kick save on.  The Aurora were getting all the chances.  Ryder looked like he may try the Michigan at one point, but it didn’t happen, then he had a dangerous shot at the side of the goal which McCarther had to hug the post to deny.  Then the Tigers pounced.  Brandon Crowell and Dan Keays on the 2 on 1.  Crowell looking for his second takes the shot.  It’s hard and Stryniak makes a beauty of a blocker save.

 

A minute later Crowell would be at it again.  He comes up on Sacre and cuts hard to the middle, forcing Bobby into an unsuspecting Eric Blanchard who is like a bicycle on railroad tracks as he gets destroyed.  Crowell goes to rip a backhand and fans, but gets his rebound back, backhand take 2 goes top shelf, 3-2 Tigers!  We’re just inside 6 minutes left and Norm Gallant tells his boys to not be afraid of dumping pucks out, then he does just that as the Tigers adapt a defensive posture.

 

Matt Ryder takes what seems like his 20th shot of the game but McCarther once again gets a leg on it.  The Tigers see a chance as Crowell gets a breakaway, he dekes to the backhand looking for the hatty but Stryniak shuts the door.  Then Blanchard stops the clearance and gives it to Crowell who tries jamming it in to no avail, but the puck goes through to Greg Renouf on the other side, and Greg throws a shot to the net without looking and a Tigers bounce goes off Stryniak’s leg and in.  It’s 4-2 Tigers with 3:18 left in the game.

 

The Aurora call a timeout and their players best suited to scoring come out.  The Tigers block 2 shots and with a chance to clear, Bessey knocks it off a Tiger stick to Matt Ryder in the slot.  He quickly fires and it’s a one goal game just 28 seconds after the Tigers had scored.  This game is getting intense and giving 2025 vibes.  Last year’s epic comeback was with just 19 seconds left in the final period, the Osprey scored twice, the won in overtime.  Were we on course for a repeat?

 

Immediately we went back to the Tigers zone but Norm’s team was better prepared to clear everything and did so.  Stryniak to the bench and out comes Bessey.  Ryder takes his second shot in 10 seconds which McCarther gloves.  Sacre point shot, held.  Icing.  Tigers then go to clear, Keays with a half clapper right into the midsection of Chris Ryder as he saves a goal.  The Aurora get it deep but Keays clears to Allan Beaton, he beats one check, dangles the D and sends it into the empty net with 2 seconds left, the Tigers have done it, the Tigers have won the Nomad Cup!

 

Norm Gallant is the King of Captains as he hoists the Nomad Cup for the first time.  The Tigers, backstopped by brilliant goaltending by Josh McCarther who put up a 1.71 GAA in the playoffs, and led up front by Brandon Crowell whose 8 goals were more than any other player, but the Tigers were a team, and as a team, they were more than the sum of their parts, and when it came down to the moments they needed to make something happen, they did it.  Fighting through a first round series with two extended shootouts, to a surprising 2nd round sweep of the top seed, the Tigers were a Wagon on a path to victory, driven by one of the greatest captains the league has ever known.

 

Congrats Tigers, enjoy it!

 

We hope to see as many Tigers on Saturday night at the Year End Celly which is being held at Boston Pizza Dartmouth Crossing from 8:30pm onward.  Come give them your congratulations and hang out with the guys to watch some playoff hockey and have a few pops.