February 5, 2006
An important weekend for the Jumbos since Wes is just behind us and Trinity is just ahead of us in the battle for playoff spots, first up Wes Fri nite
In the first Wes. goes up early 1-0 but play remains pretty even throughout the period - no more scoring and not a lot of chances either way
In the second period Wes. makes it 2-0 deep into the period but we get PP goal at 18:17 M McCarthy from Cappelano and Thompson, to get back into the game though we were starting to get outplayed
That trend continued in the third period and Wes. put the game away with goals at 13:09 and 17:30 - a late goal at 19:33 made the final 4-2 - not a game where we distinguished ourselves against a much improved Wesleyan club with no seniors playing
Saturday afternoon Trinity in town - we lost Cappellano for the balance of the season so with Murphy out we are a bit thin on the blue line - our on ice performance continues to be below par while getting outshot 16-5 in the first and if not for the goaltending of Azat our deficit after one would have been worse than 0-1
The second period is a little better but we don't get many scoring chances, give up a PP goal at 10:17 to go down 0-2, and have dug a nice hole for ourselves -- we go on the PP at the 15 minute mark (only 6 penalties in the game) and get the goal we desperately need, G McCarthy from Walsh and Clark to cut the lead in half - one minute later we strike again, Delorey from Mellilo and Bailey and suddenly it is a 2-2 game after two period and we have only play well for about 5 minutes
The third period is stunning, we score immediately, O'Connell from M McCarthy and Milo, and the whole tone of the game changes - it is like two different teams playing at both ends of the rinks - our 3 lines are wearing down their 4 and their D - we are forechecking, backchecking and playing superb hockey - the final shocker is back to back goals at 9:48 and 9:57 M McCarthy and Gimbel from Milo, O'Connell, Cleary and G McCarthy - there is no more scoring and everyone, players and fans, are exhausted
Azat in goal more than did the job - the defensemen Walsh, Thompson, Tosto, Kestner, Clark and Kelley played very under difficult circumstances and all the forwards looked more like the team we saw a couple of weeks ago
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