Aquae Sulis Bears celebrate winning shootout goal, image credit to NJ.com
The Bears win their third straight, the four top teams all win, Sept-Iles and Portus Abonae tangle trying to get back in it, and Vinovium finally gets a point.
Vinovium Lumberjacks 4, Aquae Sulis Bears 4 (0-1 SO): Yes, it was the Lumberjacks, and yes it took a shootout, but the Aquae Sulis Bears are now riding a three-game winning streak and are victors in five of their past six games. Nick May scored the opening goal for the Bears and had the winning shootout goal, while Chinese-Nova Anglican Martin Wong had a goal and an assist. The Lumberjacks were starting their second-string goalie, Simon Barnett, both to give veteran Mel Pinson a rest, but also to see if it would spark the team. Barnett made 27 saves, but it was the four in regulation and one in the shootout he didn't make that made the difference. Parker Martindale had a goal and an assist to lead the Lumberjacks, while Roman Massey notched his second and Max Getz and Jake Roundtree scored their first goals of the season. Aquae Sulis has now leapfrogged Londinium for fifth place in the league. For Vinovium, they did earn their first point, but they have now scored seven goals in two games and only have a single point to show for it. Robert Petrie's team has improved somewhat over the past two games, but he is still on incredibly thin ice (pardon the pun).
DC Oilers 5, Eboracum Sharpshooters 2: For the second straight game, the Sharpshooters allowed five goals. Unfortunately, they did not score five goals for the second straight game. This resulted in a 5-2 smackdown at the hands of the league-leading Oilers. Both goals came in the third period, so this game was even more lopsided than it looks. The Oilers took a comfortable 2-0 lead in the first on goals from Sammy Jensen and Malcolm Hogg, then buried the Sharpshooters in the second when Julian Stephens, Owen Jones, and Reed Harrison all found the back of the net. Eboracum sit tied for 9th, not exactly where they wanted to be at the moment. DC's win keeps them in first place, tied with Isca Town, and, they hope, restores some of the momentum they lost in their shootout defeat to Sept-Iles.
Isca Town Captains 1, Mancunium Raiders 0: The Captains are on a serious hot streak. Since losing the season opener to the Londinium Royals, they have won seven consecutive games, doubling up their opponents on goals, 14-7, along the way. While this was a far cry from the five goals they scored in their last game, their solid defense (only one penalty committed) and good passing allowed them to maintain a possession edge that eventually led to their winning goal. After a seemingly interminable round of passes bamboozled the Raiders defense, Jonathan Barnes shot home a one-timer past Heath Lindsay for the winning goal at 12:09 of the third period. Mancunium saw a two-game winning streak snapped.
Londinium Royals 1, Pons Aelius Steelers 2: The Royals put up a fight, but a goal from Pons Aelius' Nate Fuller at 18:22 sealed the regulation win for the Steelers. The Londinium crowd got on their feet when Brendan Ellis scored the game's first goal at 9:44 of the first period, hoping for an upset over the vaunted Steelers. But Pons Aelius struck back at 19:36 of the first, getting a goal from Aaron Black. That shocked the home crowd and sapped a lot of the momentum the Royals were feeling going into the second period. The two teams then played evenly for nearly 39 minutes before Fuller's game-winner. For Pons Aelius, that's two wins in a row, while the Royals are now on a three-game losing streak. The Steelers are still one back of league leaders DC and Isca Town, while Londinium has slipped all the way to sixth place during their losing streak.
Newfield Rangers 0, Labrador Caribou 1: The Rangers had a short-lived two-game winning streak snapped, as Caribou backup netminder Pete Henderson made 31 stops to shut out the Noviomagus squad a game after they netted five against Portus Abonae. The Rangers are tough to beat; of their five losses this year, two have been by one goal in regulation, and two in overtime or a shootout. But they are beatable, and Labrador claimed their fifth win to stay one point behind leaders DC and Isca Town. The Caribou snapped a two-game losing streak of their own, getting a third-period goal from Johnny Ramsey at 6:48 for the win.
Portus Abonae Privateers 2, Sept-Iles Whalers 0: It's so up-and-down for the Whalers this year; a game after knocking off DC at home and scoring three goals, they are shut out for the fifth time this year. In fact, the Whalers have failed to score a single goal in games they have lost and are undefeated when they have scored. They sport a strong 3-1-0 record at home, but are 0-4-0 on the road. This time, it was Portus Abonae shutting them out, with backup goaltender Will Boone spelling "Rusty" Barbour for his first start of the year. Jamie Atwood opened the scoring at 4:24 of the first period, and Cliff Holt added his first of the year at 2:24 of the third for the final score. The Privateers are now tied with Eboracum for 9th. They are looking for some consistency of their own as we near the end of the first round of round-robin play.
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