Round 3 A’s Match Report – Pirates White

This weeks A Div match was against Pirates White, aka Buccaneers. It was an intense match from the start with Jake making 6 saves in the first period. The Buccaneers were giving it their all from word go, which put their No.7, Mike van Noort in the sin bin for ‘Incorrect Hit’ for 2 mins at 6mins09. This gave us a good opportunity to score and Mauritz wasn’t going to let that pass! He fired the ball into the goal to put us into the lead with 1-0 (7mins07, assist No.30 Jimmy Laurell). Our lead was short-lived because the Buccaneers scored closely after us at 10mins54, putting it passed our defense at close range (No.6, Brad Girvan, assist No.8 Jake York).

The second period started off with another 2min bench penalty to the Buccaneers – this time their No.5, Ed Williams, for ‘Hands/Arm’. Our No.27, Kieth Tan, was ready for a little fun and maybe a kitchen…hanging around the back of the goals during the Power-Play he Zorro’d a goal and stole a kitchen from the Buccaneer defense! (4mins34, no assist). During this time another delayed 2min bench penalty was called against Buccaneers. No.7 was penalised for ‘Incorrect Push’ so the Buccaneers were still down one man despite No.5 being excused from the bench (4mins34). Keith had decided it was his day, so he scored another from just in front of the goals (5mins45, assist No.11 David Westlund). This put us in the lead, 3-1. During the second period Oli Diffen and Adrian Baster made their debuts in an A match for the season. Oli fired off a rocket of a shot which was caught by Buccaneers goalie, Michael Bircher. Our defense was getting a run for its money as the Buccaneers were desperate to even the scoreline, but it wasn’t to be. Jake, Pat and Shane had it covered. Pat made a huge five blocks in the second period alone and Shane made five throughout the game. It was a top effort from the defense in the second period – Buccaneers didn’t put one past us.

The scoring in the third period started with a turn-over in our defense by Jimmy at 3mins. Jimmy put the ball in the net, assisted by Mauritz to take the scoreline to 4-1 (3mins04). It was an intense period. The Buccaneers were desperate to score and they were trying their best to put us under pressure. The adrenaline was flowing and Lucas gave an Incorrect Push which landed him a 2min bench penalty (13mins33). Our defense was tight as and no goals were conceded during the Short Handed Play. Lucas quickly made up for his momentary loss of control by roofing the ball into the Buccaneer net 14 seconds after he stepped off the penalty bench, assisted by our No.15 Espen Kjerup Jorgenson (15mins47). Shortly thereafter David had a moment in the spotlight with an almost casual wrist-shot of the ball into the left-hand-side of the net, bringing our score up to 6-1 (16mins20, no assist). The Buccaneers kept fighting it out and managed one more goal before the end of the period at 17mins11 (No.6, Brad Girvan, assist No.7 Mike van Noort). We should be proud of our efforts in the third period with 24 shots, exactly double the number of the Buccaneers shots, including a very close miss by Espen on a Short-Handed Play. Well Done!