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BrewskyBoy · 06-21-2019, 04:51 PM

St. Louis Scarecrows vs Colorado Raptors Raptors

Game 61

Tonight, we saw a match-up featuring two teams still trying to find their footing in the standings. The Scarecrows came in with a record of 6-5-0 in 5th place, while the Raptors found themselves down in 8th with a record of 4-5-2. They had yet to play each other this year, but had split the season series last year with 3 wins each. With that being said, let's jump into the action to see who came out on top.

1st Period
This game got off to a quick start as the Scarecrows were able to silence the home crowd just 18 seconds into the game. With both top units out on the ice to begin the game, the Crows Lyle Odelein III corralled a puck behind the Raptor net after a missed shot by center Mika Kandinsky, and wasted no time in burying the biscuit in the back of the net for his team-leading fifth goal of the season. It didn't take long before the Raptors erased the deficit. Just two and half minutes into the game, Crow's defender Mattie Brunton was sent to the box for interference. Ja'Aj Coutis-Wagg would go on to win the ensuing face-off in the Scarecrow zone and feed the puck cleanly to Eric Vanderberg at the point, who rifled one top shelf for his second goal on the campaign. The Raptors would not be satisfied with only one goal in the period, and found themselves taking the lead with only three minutes remaining before the first intermission. Following a neutral zone turnover by the Scarecrows, the Raptors proceeded to advance up the ice with a beautiful display of tic-tac-toe passing before Coutis-Wagg netted his third of the year to go with his helper from earlier in the period.

2nd Period
The second period got off to a slow start, but the play was controlled primarily by St. Louis as they rattled off 7 shots to begin the period in comparison to a single shot by Colorado. This attack paid off for the Scarecrows as they drew even at 2-2 halfway through the second frame with another blast from a blueliner, this time by veteran Basil Magnicotta, with his fifth tally of the season. The Scarecrows controlled the play until the last few minutes of the period when Colorado flipped a switch and began to pour it on. A flurry of shot attempts by the Raptors resulted in a face-off in the offensive zone with three and a half left in the period. The draw was won yet again by Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg to teammate Mikelis Ozolins, and he immediately fed the puck back across the ice to who? You guessed it. Coutis-Wagg. Coutis-Wagg gave the Raptors the lead back with his second goal of the game but that wasn't enough for the hungry Raptors. They captured possession once again in the neutral zone and a series of back and forth passes between Tokolosh and Knurtsson led to another goal for the Raptors, as Tokolosh scored his fifth of the season. Tokolosh would later commit a hooking penalty with a minute left in the period, but the Raptors were able to hold the Crows off and took their 4-2 lead into the second intermission.

3rd period
With the Scarecrows down by two to begin the final period, they knew they had to get things going quickly with the little time that was remaining on the power play that carried over from the previous period. And get things going quickly they did. Leave it to the captain himself, Nicolaj Muller, to pull his team back to within one as he blistered a one timer off the stick of line-mate Mika Kandinsky for his fifth of the season as well. The Scarecrows would go on to out-shoot the Raptors 14-3 in the period and have 3 more opportunities on the power play, but failed to capitalize on their chances in the end. The Raptors held on for the 4-3 win despite being out-shot 38-23, backed by a strong performance by Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg who racked up 2 goals and an assist in the victory.

Final Score

Scarecrows 3 - 4 Raptors Raptors

Tonight's 3 Stars
1. Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg (2G, 1A) Raptors

2. Basil Magnicotta (1G, 1A) Scarecrows

3. Lyle Odelein III (1G) Scarecrows

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khabib · 06-21-2019, 05:10 PM

Comment 1: What Went Well for the Scarecrows

Although the result wasn’t one the St. Louis Scarecrows were expecting, the Crows should be proud of they way they handled the animosity and performed during the tough game vs the Colorado Raptors. The Crows scored early in the game and tried to take the home crowd out of it, and pestered Raptors’ goalie Alexander Thorstrom with 38 shots and tapped in three goals as well. St. Louis should be proud of the way they played as they turned up the pressure in the 3rd period especially. They outshot Colorado 14-3 and looked like they would eventually pot one. Hot goaltending and some unlucky bounces got in their way, but the Crows will be back.

Comment 2: Unsung hero

On paper, the St. Louis Scarecrows dominated the Colorado Raptors in the 2nd and 3rd period, pestering the Colorado defence with 14 shots a period but goaltender Alexander Thorstrom stood tall and willed his team to victory. Thorstrom saved a tremendous 35 out of 38 shots posting a 0.921 save percentage and earned another victory for the young Raptors squad. In the 3rd period Thorstrom allowed just one goal on a powerplay and held the crucial one goal lead the rest of the way, acting like the brick wall he is. It was a complete team effort from the young Raptors but without Thorstrom there would have been no shot at a victory and that's why he's our unsung hero of the night.

Comment 3: 3 Stars of the Game

1st Star: Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg (COL)
Ja'Aj assisted or scored on 3 of the 4 Raptors goals of the night and led the way for Colorado to defeat the tough Scarecrows. He was everywhere tonight for his Raptors team, he put in over 6 minutes on the penalty kill, won over 66% of his faceoffs and produced offensively. What more can you ask for? Ja'Aj stepped up big when he was needed.

2nd Star: Basil Magnicotta (STL)
Basil showed up for St. Louis today, with a goal and an assist in the contest. He wasn't afraid to lay the body with a couple of hits in the game and at one point even upped the scoreboard, striking fear into the Raptors' hearts.

3rd Star: Lyle Odelein III (STL)
Lyle opened up the scoring for St. Louis early, 18 seconds into the game to be exact. He was a big factor in hushing the loud Colorado crowd and went onto use his body effectively. Lyle tallied 2 big hits and blocked 2 shots showing just how much he wanted to win this game. Lyle showed up and definitely wasn't a factor in St. Louis dropping this game.

Zach · 06-21-2019, 07:15 PM

Comment 1: Turning point
Turning point of the game came from Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg. He scored in the first to put Colorado up 2-1 however it was tied back up in the second by St Louis' Basil Magnicotta. Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg sets the turning point here as he scores again from Mikelis Ozolins, his fourth goal of the season and that sets the momentum for the team as Julio Tokolosh scores in just over a minute later after an assist from Knute Knurtsson and a secondary assist from Eric Vanderberg. The Colorado Raptors would hang in there for the rest of the game to edge the Scarecrows at 4-3.

Comment 2: Story of the game
Story of the game was definitely the St. Louis Scarecrows and their failing powerplay. The Raptors took 7 penalties and the Scarecrows could only capitalize on one despite having almost 14 minutes of powerplay time and a powerplay where no shots were taken. Scarecrows are running Mika Kandinsky as center on powerplay 1 and Gaspard Boone on powerplay 2. For wings it's Nicolaj Muller and Nicolas Fleming on powerplay 1 and Fork Spoon and Barrett Blackwoodon powerplay 2. Is it possible that the Raptors may just have a penalty taking strategy from a PK squad that holds them down, or do the Scarecrows need to look at some serious work on their powerplay?

Comment 3: Infographic of faceoffs
[Image: wYG5GJH.jpg]

Whikadoodle · 06-27-2019, 10:28 AM

Let's take a moment to recognize tonights Canadian Tire Unsung Hero of the Game, presented by Titos Vodka. Titos Vodka, just Vodka, gets you drunk!

Tonight we recognize an absolute workhorse who fought hard for his squad tonight, Nicolai Muller. Mullers third period powerp lay goal gave St Louis life and a chance to take this game into an extra frame. Muller did everything he could to do it himself, testing the Colorado goaltending an additional four times and contributing on the defensive end with two hits and a shot block.

Congratulations to tonight's Canadian Tire Unsung Hero of the Game!

Nicolaj Muller 1 0 1 1 0 5 2 1

(115 Words)

iRockstar · 06-27-2019, 04:35 PM

COMMENT ONE - Penalty Minutes Almost Problematic For Colorado
St. Louis was down one goal every period for the first two to start the game, despite the setback and the deficit they fought hard, however two things here to point out about the penalties that played almost crucial parts. First thing is that Colorado had SEVEN of them, yeah SEVEN, to the opposing teams TWO, thats a huge difference, being on the PK that long is a big deal, however on the flip side, Colorado has a great PK and only allowed two goals that whole time, something impressive to say. Regardless, St. Louis almost tied the game late but came up short, thank god too. (107 words)

COMMENT TWO - Surprising "Three Star" Results?
To me this one could've gone either way, a lot of players were on their a-game and a lot of them could deserve to be here, what shocks me is that in a winning effort where they had the better goalie and players who also had multi-point production were left off the list. St. Louis should not be discredited here, but it does shock me that two of Colorado's other "star" players did just as good here while being left off the board, regardless, it was a good game for everyone. Look forward to seeing these three stars shine in future games for sure! (104 words)

COMMENT THREE - Face-off Reigns Supreme
This game was very stop and go, it had 91 face-offs, yeah...91, unless the game is broken but it shows 41 wins for St. Louis and 50 wins for Colorado, so if that number is correct, what in gods green earth is going on? This was insane and crazy enough the team who won the most, won the game. This just goes that winning those key face-offs can be do or die for your team. Had the Scarecrows won a few more and one of those been crucial and in the Raptors zone, things may've ended differently for them for sure. (101 words)

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