A Royal and a Steeler fight for the puck along the boards, image credit to NHL
All three top teams lose (one more shocking than the others), Sept-Iles keeps winning, and Vinovium shows resiliency
Pons Aelius Steelers 0, Londinium Royals 0 (0-2 SO): This was a big game for both teams. Pons Aelius, one point behind Isca Town, needed a win to keep pace, tie, or maybe even take over first place. The Royals were riding a five-game winning streak and sitting just two back of DC for third place. And it maybe played out a little tight for sides. There were mistakes made in all three periods, and the teams looked a bit out of sorts. Even early in the season, important games can have a big impact on the playoffs and both teams seemed a bit nervous. It suited Pons Aelius a bit more, as they are better at defending than attacking, but they couldn't muster anything, and Brett McQueen made 24 easy saves in regulation and overtime. In the shootout, it was Sheldon Cook and Daniel Roberts who scored for Londinium, and Eli Boyd stopped four Pons Aelius shots to preserve the victory. Londinium got their sixth straight win and moved into a tie for third with DC, while the point that the Steelers picked up tied them at 31 with the Captains, giving them a share of first place. These two teams feature the first and third-ranked defenses in the league, so maybe it wasn't a surprise it went to a shootout. Pons Aelius' single-digit overall goals-allowed run will survive another day. Londinium has a quasi-rivalry game with the Caribou next, while Pons Aelius wants to avenge their loss against Vinovium.
Mancunium Raiders 2, Isca Town Captains 1: Well, if this ain't a kick in the head for Isca Town. Fighting to stay on top of the league, facing the second-worst team, and they lose what should be a gimme game on the road. There aren't any gimme games in the NAHL, and they learned that tonight. Mancunium took a 1-0 lead when Matt Harmon fired a snap shot past Justin Smith in the first period, and they held that lead into the second period. Then Robbie Reid skated past two defenders on a counterattack and, alone with Heath Lindsay, didn't miss, tying the score at 6:39. This state of affairs continued until Jason Gross, Captains d-man, was caught out of position and had to hook a Raiders player to avoid the offensive advantage. He was quickly whistled up and on the ensuing power play, Brandon Scanlon found an opening and rifled one past Smith for the eventual winning goal. Raiders fans went crazy for the upset when the final horn sounded, and the Captains skated off in disgust. Mancunium gets DC next; maybe they can pull a Sept-Iles and beat those two teams in back-to-back games?
Eboracum Sharpshooters 2, DC Oilers 0: And our trifecta of top teams losing is complete with the Sharpshooter taking down the Oilers in Eboracum. At the end of the first period, it looked like anyone's game, with the Oilers having a 10-9 shot advantage and both teams pressing hard. But in the second, DC got whistled for two penalties within 40 seconds, which gave the Sharpshooters 1:20 of five-on-three action. They converted 23 seconds later when Christian Ball took a wide-open shot that beat Ted Carpenter top shelf, and Eboracum had a lead. Still on the power play for a minute and a half, Tim Smith scored against a shorthanded Oilers team to provide the final margin. Although DC probably outplayed the Sharpshooters in the third period, they couldn't find a goal and went down to a scoreless defeat. This is a bad time for the Oilers to be losing games; they've lost three of their last four at precisely the time when they need to be taking advantage of Isca Town losing two of their last three games. We will see if they can get their league-leading offense back on track against Mancunium next. Eboracum got a much needed win to pull within two points of fifth-place Labrador and will travel to slumping Portus Abonae next.
Sept-Iles Whalers 4, Portus Abonae Privateers 2: This wasn't as close as it looked. In front of 8,500 fans at "Le Navire", the Whalers scored two goals in each of the first two periods to essentially put this game to bed. Rene Kelly, Denis Babin, James McDaniel, and Jean-Luc Broussard were the goal-scorers for Sept-Iles, and by the time Portus Abonae's Mike Henry scored in the third, it was too late. The Whalers now have a three-game winning streak and have moved into seventh place. For the Privateers, they are living in hell, also known as a tie for 10th place. They've scored the goals, averaging 2.1/game, good for third in the league, but their goals allowed per game of 2.7 is league-worst, which is what is really tripping them up. They will get a chance to break their six-game losing streak when they host Eboracum next. The Whalers will head to Newfield; a Whalers win means they're on the outside edge of competition, a Rangers win means they'll have leapfrogged Sept-Iles into seventh.
Aquae Sulis Bears 0, Vinovium Lumberjacks 2: Backup goaltender Simon Barnett made 26 stops and Tyler Foster scored his first goal of the season to help Vinovium to a 2-0 road win tonight. Of Barnett's performance, interim head coach Dean Collins said, "Simon did a great job for us tonight. Having a solid guy in net and good performances from the d-men in front of him, I think, loosened us up and allowed us to really play more of our game." The Lumberjacks snapped a two-game losing streak with this win. The Bears have not found that consistent offense yet; they are tied for fifth in offense, but they aren't distributing their goals particularly well. They've lost four in a row by an aggregate score of 12-4. Vinovium has now achieved the rare feat (for them) of going .500 over their last eight games, winning four and losing four. They are still in last place, but any progress is good progress. Aquae Sulis gets Isca Town on the road next, pretty tough sledding for any team.
Labrador Caribou 1, Newfield Rangers 3: Labrador's scoring has returned to normal levels, being limited to one goal in their last game by defensive mavens Pons Aelius, and only managing one against a mediocre Rangers defense. Perhaps worse for them is that they've now lost two straight home games; failing to defend home turf is a great way to squander your chances in the NAHL. In this game, Victor Hall scored first for Labrador, at 7:25 of the first period, and the Caribou held that lead throughout the period. But Elliott Parrish found the net for Newfield early in the second, and Seth Sharp scored late to put the Rangers up 2-1. It looked like the Rangers took coach Teddy Clegg's words about the third period seriously, as they frustrated Labrador's attempts to score an equalizer, limiting them to just seven on-target shots. With their defense and Toby Swan's tap-in at 14:31, the Rangers sewed this one up for their second consecutive win. Newfield remains one back of Sept-Iles for seventh, while Labrador is now four back of DC and Londinium.
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