The St John river near the Bay of Fundy and Durovernum Cantiacorum, image credit to The Globe and Mail
Isca Town's streak is over, Newfield's losing streak continues, and Labrador scores seven goals!
DC Oilers 3, Isca Town Captains 1: Thirteen is all you get, Isca Town! After losing their first game, the Captains had won an impressive thirteen games in a row before running into a brick wall in net in the form of DC's Ted Carpenter. Carpenter didn't shut them out, but he did make 33 saves to more than corral the Captains. But more impressive than Carpenter's stops was DC's breaking down of the Captains' defense. Isca Town was riding a shutout streak of more than 400 minutes coming in, and had allowed at least three goals only once this season. DC broke that shutout streak at 3:14 when Wally McMillan beat Justin Smith, and they made it 2-0 just five minutes later, courtesy of Sammy Jensen. The Captains struck back in the second when Jonathan Barnes scored, but Jeff Sutton banged one home off of a rebound with just 26 seconds to go in the second to restore the two-goal lead. With the win, DC becomes the first team to 40 goals and ties Isca Town for first place. The Captains, Oilers, and Steelers are all within two points of each other and look like they are consolidating things at the top. It will be tough for any team to break through, but for these teams, top-two status means they will be hosting the first round of the playoffs, a big advantage.
Aquae Sulis Bears 3, Newfield Rangers 1: It's six in a row now for Newfield, who have not won since game nine, when they beat Sept-Iles in a shootout. The crazy thing is, they haven't been severely outplayed or anything; they've been outscored 9-3 with an OT loss and a shootout loss. A couple of bounces here or there, an extra goal, and they might be right in the thick of it. Even the final score here is a little deceptive; the Bears' Martin Wong scored an empty-netter late to provide the two-goal final margin. Otherwise, this was quite competitive; David Richter scored for the Bears at 4:24 of the first, but Newfield's Toby Swan answered back at 6:53 of the second to tie the score. Art Morrison made several nice saves in the third, and 28 for the game, that kept the Bears in it until Mike Morrill found the back of the net at 12:09 of the third for the eventual winning goal. Both teams will have tough assignments next; the Bears traveling to Pons Aelius and the Rangers hosting the Oilers.
Eboracum Sharpshooters 4, Labrador Caribou 7: How did we get here? The Caribou have jumped from the bottom half of goal-scoring teams to tied for third in a single game. Much of it had to do with their strong power play, which converted on four of seven opportunities. Eboracum couldn't get out of its own way, committing penalties for tripping, hooking, interference, and holding. Their penalty kill allowed Victor Hall to score twice, and Johnny Ramsey and Wade Hamilton once each. The Caribou went up 3-1 in the first, 5-3 after the second, and Stan Colvin added an empty-net goal in the waning seconds to make it 7-4 by the end. Glen Gray had two goals and an assist to lead Eboracum, who returned to their goal-scoring ways after being shut out by Pons Aelius in the last game. With the win, Labrador remains tied for fourth with Londinium, while the Sharpshooters missed a golden opportunity to leapfrog a rival. Eboracum will head to Londinium next for a big rivalry game, while Labrador will face their own rival in a slumping Mancunium team who has lost six of seven.
Sept-Iles Whalers 2, Londinium Royals 3: Youthful talent was on display here, as the Whalers and Royals clashed in "Le Navire". All the goalscorers were 25 or younger, and a majority of all players were under 28. But in this matchup of young vs. young, the Royals claimed the victory, disappointing the near-capacity crowd of 8,845, the vast majority of whom were Whalers partisans. Throughout the first period, when the Whalers led 1-0 on a James McDaniel goal, "Meilleurs que vous" could be heard echoing throughout the stadium, but the chants died down in the second when Ben Malone and Eric Benson beat Clement Charbonneau to put the Royals up 2-1. Gaston Fortin scored his eighth of the season to tie the game at 6:43 of the third and the place was rocking again. But heartbreak struck at 16:29 when Sheldon Cook found Thomas Bailey for a snap shot that found the back of the net to give the Royals the 3-2 win. Londinium gets Eboracum at home in a tough rivalry game between direct competitors, while the Whalers will try to right the ship on the road against an improving Vinovium team.
Portus Abonae Privateers 0, Vinovium Lumberjacks 1: Big win for Vinovium, as they claim points on the road and a little momentum, having won two out of their last four and only lost by one in the other two games to good teams. Interim head coach Dean Collins said after the game, "Little by little, we're improving. The mood in the locker room is getting better and I think we're starting to see guys pick their heads up a bit more. We just want to keep it going." Parker Martindale had the only goal for the Lumberjacks, a wraparound at 17:56 of the first period that beat "Rusty" Barbour on his weak side. Vinovium will host Sept-Iles next; both teams will be scrapping for points. The Privateers are left shaking their heads, enduring some derision from the home fans, and wondering why they couldn't take advantage at home of a Lumberjacks team that has not played well this year. They've lost three out of four to begin the second round-robin, the same as the first, and are looking seriously wobbly.
Mancunium Raiders 0, Pons Aelius Steelers 1: Not much to see here; an outmatched Raiders team put 29 shots on net, but Brett McQueen stopped all of them with relative ease. Meanwhile, the Steelers took advantage of a hooking penalty on Mancunium's Jed Greenfield and converted the power-play opportunity into a Brooks Worrell second-period goal. Pons Aelius continues to be a nearly unstoppable defensive machine, having won four straight games by a score of 1-0, and five straight overall. With Isca Town conceding three goals tonight, the Steelers are the last team who have not yet allowed double-digit goals (7). Their goal-scoring is only a paltry 1.2/game, but they are allowing less than 0.5 goals/game, which makes them incredibly tough to beat. With Isca Town's loss, they are just two points behind them and DC for first place; their 21st and 22nd games, against Isca Town and DC, will be ones to watch. The Raiders head into their intra-Labrador rivalry with the Caribou carrying double-digit losses and just three points out of last place.
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