Shamrock Playoffs 2 & 3
Submitted By jjohnston on Mon 02 27, 12
Our Atom AE Stars played their second and third games of the Shamrock play downs against West Lorne last week. We had beat this team three times this year, but all were close, hard fought games, so we knew that we could not take anything for granted.
Game 1 went on Tuesday night here at home, and after that brutal call that cost us a tie in our first game against Mooretown, we needed a good effort to regain our composure and stay in this round robin series. Well, that didn't happen. The boys came out flat and stayed that way all game long. We dropped a very disappointing 4-1 decision by not making simple plays clearing our zone. West Lorne was given 3 gifts that ended up in our net and took us out of the game. Darryn Olyschlager netted our only goal in the third assisted by Coleton Robison-Sareh and Lucas Glanville, which cut the lead to 2-1, but we quickly gave 2 back and ended our chances of pulling this one out.
Saturday we travelled to West Lorne in a must win game, or we would be eliminated before our final game against Mooretown. Again, we started out slowly allowing an early wrap around goal that slid by Markus Thompson. Thankfully, that was all he would allow for the rest of the tilt, and allow our offence to get on track.
The boys found their legs in the second when Darryn Olysclager took a pass from Coleton Robison-Sareh and beat West Lorne's keeper to tie it at one. It was the spark the team needed and we seemed to be in full control from that point on. Our Stars took the lead later in the period when Owen Wookey threw the puck up the middle and it was slowly sliding towards West Lorne's goal. Tyler Johnston used his speed to fly by the Comet's Dmen and tried to catch up to the puck before it reached their goalie. The goalie chose to stay in his net, and Tyler got there at the last possible second. I was fully expecting a car wreck in the crease, but Tyler was able to make a sharp left and deke around the keeper to give us the lead. Owen put just enough "english" on it, because if it had gotten 6 inches further the goalie would have covered the puck.
Darryn added his second goal of the game early in the third on a nice individual rush where he deked through both West Lorne Dmen and then beat the keeper with a nice backhander. Our boys had several other great chances to score and extend the lead, but that would be it for the scoring in this one. It was a solid 3-1 win in a game that we absolutely had to have.
Luckily for us Mooretown beat West Lorne 5-0 and 3-2, so all we need is a tie in our final game against Mooretown and we will move on to the next round. A tie we should already have from game 1, but at least we have the opportunity to control our own fate. Good job boys.