1 - Billy Sorokin
2 - Niolaj Muller
3 - Noah Gallagher

Game Analysis:

Tonight's game saw the top two teams in the league facing off against each other in an important match up in the race to take a stronghold on first place in the league.  Both the St. Louis Scarecrows and the Vancouver Whalers were on winning streaks of four games each.  An unstoppable force met an immovable object in tonight's bout and the unstoppable force of the St. Louis Scarecrows showed us that the object wasn't so immovable after all!  

The Scarecrows won the game 4-1 lead by an unbelievable performance by their goaltender, Billy Sorokin who was also the first star of this game.  Sorokin saved 34 out of 35 shots for a .971 save percentage in this game.  He was worked hard across all three periods and was able to keep the game out of reach for the Whalers, frustrating them at every turn.  The Whalers' goalie, Casimir Stevens, saved 22 of 26 shots for a .871 save percentage.  The Whalers would have liked to see a better performance from their goaltender on such a big game night, but he couldn't fend off the relentless and even attack of the Scarecrows.

This was a game that the coaches of the Scarecrows love to see from their guys.  Depth scoring is integral to winning hockey games and the Scarecrows are getting tons of depth.  Their third line consisting of Gaspard Boone, Noah Gallagher, and Nicolaj Muller teamed up for a total of 5 points on the night.  They scored half of the goals in the game.  That kind of performance, if consistent, wins championships.  The Scarecrows have to feel confident seeing that performance from their third line, in a game which saw them take their winning streak to 5 in a row, and also ending the Whalers.  This game allowed them to jump them in the standings to take first place in the league.

The Scarecrows coaches should be applauded for the way they managed this game.  They knew that Vancouver was hot coming into this game and they adjusted their lines accordingly.  Looking at time on ice stats you can see that the Whalers played their 4th line 3 more minutes than the Scarecrows played theirs.  This allowed the Crows to get their third line on the ice more.  That paid dividends for the team with the 2 goals that they scored.  The Whalers couldn't keep up while seeing the top 3 lines for 90% of the game spread very evenly between them all with a slight edge to the top line.  This is the X factor for this game.  Had the Scarecrows played their 4th line more in favor of getting the 3rd on the ice, the would have missed out on some big goals.

The Scarecrows were strong at even strength throughout this game.  They did not score on any of their 3 power plays, but they didn't need to.  All of their goals were scored at even strength, sending the majority of the Whalers team into the negatives for +/- on the night.  The one goal the Whalers did score came on a power play opportunity.  Getting dominated during 5 on 5 play lost the Whalers this game.  Even though they were able to take 35 shots, they were mostly from the perimeters and they had a hard time penetrating into the middle of the ice.  When they did, they ran into Sorokin who was a brick wall all night.  The Scarecrows are looking very strong and are truly in mid-season form.  It will be exciting to see if they can hold on to the top spot in the league, or if they will be challenged for it.

Comment below to let us know what you thought and saw in tonight's game!