Mooretown Storm Atom AE in a must win situation

Game 3 - Mooretown 2 St.Mary's 3 OT

 

The Storm swept into St.Mary's on Saturday looking to take the series lead with another strong road performance.  In what was another exciting and well played game Mooretown came up on the short end of a 3-2 Overtime loss.

 

The Storm started the game with loads of energy and took it to the home team with some great hustle and strong forechecking.  Having seen the St.Mary's rink the previous weekend the Storm defence were well prepared for the large defensive zone and did an excellent job of skating the puck out or hitting their forwards on the tape with good breakout passes.  

 

With the no score in the 1st Period the Storm would capitalize on their strong forechecking early in the 2nd to grab the lead just thirty seconds in. Christian Lyle, battling hard out front, slammed the puck home after some great work down low by Ethan DuPont and Aynsley Harrison.  The period would continue with end to end action with Mooretown having to kill off the only penalty.  With just ten seconds left in the 2nd St.Mary's would tie the game off a face-off as a long point shot managed to sneak past the blocker of a heavily screened Kyler Raymond.  Raymond again had a solid outing in playing the first two periods before giving way to Kaden Fulcher.

 

St.Mary's would take the lead just over a minute into the 3rd on an unfortunate bounce for the Storm.  A St.Mary's winger, having been driven to the outside but some good defensive positioning, put the puck onto the net.  As Fulcher got set to make routine save on the far side the puck hit the Storm defender's stick and changed course, rolling just inside the near post.  Mooretown reacted quickly and tied the game back up just a minute later as again strong forechecking and hard play in front of the St.Mary's net lead to Kirk Smith pushing in a rebound from Ben Anderson and Aleeza Dobson.  The rest of regulation was a nailbiter as both teams had numerous chances to bury the winner only to be turned away by stellar goalkeeping in each end.

 

Overtime started with a flurry as the Storm went for the kill.  However, today was not to be theirs as they were foiled on some glorious chances, with the save of the game coming on a wrist shot labeled for the top of the net from point blank about 5 feet out from the crease.  Mooretown again carried the play in overtime but the winner would come on an unlucky play with a little under three minutes remaining as a St.Mary's shot was deflected by a Mooretown stick up and over the shoulder of Fulcher.  Fulcher reacted quickly and got his glove over the puck before the goal line but a slow whistle by the ref gave the charging St.Mary's forward the time he needed to dislodge the puck and shove it into the net to end the game. 

 

While it figured to be tough to top the excitement of Game 1 this game definitely did.    

 

Game 4 - Mooretown 2 St.Mary's 2 OT

 

The Storm found themselves in a must win situation on Easter Sunday trailing the series 2 games to 1 (4 points to 2) and responded with a great effort in yet another exciting game that went down to the wire.

 

Mooretown took an early lead as Luke Simon's blast found the back of the net two minutes in.  Dobson and Smith picked up the assists.

The game stayed 1-0 for the Storm into the 3rd Period.  Mooretown played its best all around game of the series in allowing St.Mary's very few good scoring opportunities and bottling them up in their own end with great offensive pressure and some excellent play at the blueline by the Defence. 

 

While out-chancing St.Mary's by a wide margin the Storm were unable to pad their lead and St.Mary's would tie the game up midway through the 3rd with the teams playing 4 on 4.  The Storm continued to press for the go ahead goal on a late powerplay but some miscommunication in the neutral zone resulted in St.Mary's scoring a beautiful shorthanded goal with just under three minutes remaining.  With the season on the line Mooretown turned it up another notch and scored a minute later to send the teams to overtime for the third time in four games.  Scoring the tying goal on a goalmouth scramble was Smith with assists to Harrison and Lyle.

 

An overtime goal by St.Mary's would end the series and the visiting team pressed hard for the win.  Raymond, having started the 3rd after Fulcher's solid two periods, made some keys saves while at the other end the Storm had three great chances, one a short breakaway off a two on one rush, but were unable to find the net.

 

With the 10 minute overtime ending without a goal the teams each earned a point and St.Mary's now leads the 6 point series 5 to 3.  
 

A Mooretown victory in Game 5 next Saturday in St.Mary's would tie the series and force a final, winner take all, Game 6 in Mooretown on Sunday.