Suds and Preds tangle to a tie

Schlitz (16) vs Predators

Wednesday January 27

Dedham 10:10pm

3-3 Tie

An interesting evening in Dedham last night as the Suds would face Division Rival the Predators for a late evening game. Things didn't bode well at the very start as the Gold were almost entirely late for the pregame warmups. Thankfully enough guys were able to make it out and get some stretches in to start the game. The rest of the team would filter in over the first few minutes. We didn't have a whole 13 as was figured upon but decent numbers nonetheless... here's what we looked like

Lizzy in net

D1: Valenti, Goody

D2: Reynolds, Jeff

Offense: Roman and Neil as Centers

Wings: iJosh, Mitch, Matvey, Chris, AK, and Nelson.

First off lets say this. The Preds have some players. By my estimation they had probably 3 guys skating that were better than just about anyone on our roster. In the opening minutes the Blogger was thinking we'd need a great effort just to stay close... but looks may have been deceiving... The first settled into a decent back and forth with the Gold getting more chances than the Preds for the better part of the period.
The Gold would go to the box 2ice, first Roman then Jeff for a trip late in the period. The Preds also sent two to the box earlier on, but no scoring on those PPs. During the Jeff penalty Nelson would make a terrific steal and would rush in and score a great hard work goal that would put the Gold up 1-0 with 2 minutes left in the first.

The Gold wasn't done. Just after the penalty expired Chris Fosdick would score on a feed from Neil (who did some great work in the zone) and would increase the lead to 2 with 30 seconds left. But they STILL weren't done. Neil and Chris had such good results from their hard work that after the puck drop they went right at it again. Neil charging into the zone, wheeling and dealing to get a chance. Chris was there as everyone converged on the net and he jammed home the puck just before the horn blew for the end of the period.
Suddenly the Gold sat on a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period. Stunning, but we knew it would still take a lot of work to win the game.

The Green would come out gunning to open the second. They put out a stacked line that took less than a minute to score. Thankfully their momentum was slowed by another penalty just a few minutes later. The Gold would send AK to the box but the two teams would play back and forth without incident until late in the period. One of their no shield strong skaters, the Red helmeted number 8 would take the play right into Lizzy in the slot and then was tackled by Valenti... who did the right thing. Of course 8 then cries and whines like he's never been touched in his life and... get this... talks the ref into giving him a penalty shot. Unbelievable but true. So as time expired this douche would get his penalty shot which he made about 3 moves on and put behind Lizzy for the second goal. 3-2 after 2.

The Preds would continue to build momentum as they would open the third with the stacked line again and would score to tie the game just over a minute into the period. The Gold was disheartened but to their credit no one backed down and the effort was still strong as the game wound down.

There would be more penalties as Matvey would go after a standoff/pushfest with #2 (another big no shield dude) in the corner. Number 2 would end up pushing a ref and getting tossed. Matvey would go off for ... falling down I guess. Goody would tangle with #8 and they would go for matching roughs.

What it all came down to in the end was that the very frustrated and slightly more talented Predators did everything they could to get the game winner, but it wasn't going to happen. Lizzy made some great stops down the stretch. The D played great, and the Offense for the Gold just kept getting chances and keeping the puck in the the other end when they could. All in all a good tie to earn against a strong opponent.

No Stars for a tie... but good effort by all the skating Beercans on this night.