Sunday, January 18, 2009

Regular Season Game #13



This weekends game marked the beginning of the last third of the season for the team. We are in the streach run towards the playoffs and are battling for position heading into the post-season. We travelled to the south of Paris to face the Peaux-Rouges (Redskins) of Evry in an important game as Evry is one of the teams behind us that we would like to keep there.

The first period started off a little slow as we played a trapping system designed to limit the other team's scoring chances. We wanted to wait for the other team to make a mistake and our patience paid off as Andronik forced a turnover just inside the Evry zone. He grabbed the loose puck and went cross-ice to Olivier Ducam, who has been moved up to wing on the first line from defense, who put the puck into an open net. In typical New Jersey Devil/Minnesota Wild fashion, we relied heavily on our goalie to be better then the opposition goalie and Tommi was up for the challenge as he made several big saves for us in the period. After 20 minutes, Asnieres 1, Evry 0.

After the first period we changed our strategy and started to attack more aggresively. Unfortunatly we took a few penalties as a result which seemed to even out the momentum of the game. We did manage to notch a goal shorthanded however as Emelien Rouyer did a great job of finishing a nice counter-attack while Evry had the man advantage. If you take enough penalties however, you will eventually get burnt and we allowed Evry to notch a power-play marker mid-way through the period. The goal was a little suspicious however as their defenseman lofted a puck towards our net which was then re-directed into the net by their player's glove in front of Tommi. The referees missed it however and the period ended with the score 2-1.

In the third period we continued to quicken the pace and we started the period off with our captain, Sly Bourcet, getting on the scoresheet after a fantastic play by our young Finnish import, Paul Manushkin. Paul, with his linemates, had forced a turnover just inside the Evry zone which resulted in a short 2 on 1 situation in tight to the net. Sly tapped in an easy one and we were rolling. Evry were not going to go as quietly as ACBB did last weekend and scored another power-play goal on another suspect goal. This time the puck exited the zone and was brought back in off-side. Everyone in the rink saw it except for the guys that mattered (ie. the referees) and Evry put one into the back of our net as a result. The Asnieres Castors wanted the win however and we notched a power-play goal of our own a few minutes later when I moved a puck to Andro as we crossed the Evry blueline who then moved it Baptiste who ripped a twenty footer past the Evry goalie.

Evry continued to pour it on and tried to make a comeback as we took some more penalties and had to kill a 2 man advantage, but thanks to some great shot blocking, tough stick work, and a stellar goalie, we actually managed to spring our first man out of the box, Bruno Rivero, on a breakaway. Bruno made no mistake and sealed the win for us.

It was a great team effort as everyone bought into the system and played hard. Tommi was spectacular and probably played one of his most active games as he was really moving in the net. Next week we play Champigny at home in another big game as the road to the playoffs continues.

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