Letter of Marque
Too Much To Handle
Article written by french sport journalist Evok
S35G32

<div align="center">Halifax Raiders 1 || Detroit Falcons 7</div>

The Raiders had a close game the day before versus Detroit. They didn’t had to travel for their next road game as they were scheduled to play two days in a row in the Jet Blue Airways Arena. They had a short practice in the morning then rested in order to be able to perform the same way versus the Falcons during the night.

There was not a lot of action during the first period and the game stayed pretty close for both team. The game started with a clean face-off by both centers, but the play turned sour when Dwayne Wyder took place in front of the forward and the referees judged he was interfering with him. The Raiders were right away in a penalty kill mode. Fortunately for them, they stood strong in front of the Falcons and were able to survive without any issue. A few minutes later, Roddy Hawkins gave a golden opportunity to Halifax when his hick stick draw blood from one of the Raiders player. However, Evgueni Marmeladov didn’t flinch at all during the following 4 minutes of power play, denying them to take the lead. It was Maurizio Arrivabene that managed to beat Larry Enticer first around the middle of the period. Following that goal, Cloud McCarthy was punished not long after for hooking one of the Falcons. The penalty kill units of the Raiders managed to hold the ice without any issue. A few minutes before the end of the period, Otto Lahti handed another opportunity to Halifax when he was punished for roughing, but this time, the Falcons special units didn’t allow them to really test their goaltender.

The second period didn’t start well for the Raiders. Soon after the initial whistle of the period, Kevin Marks managed to outplay Enticer and allowed the Falcons to take a 2 goals lead. However, around the 8 minutes mark of the period, Wyder was in a great position in front of the net and managed to deflect a shot by Bar Downski, allowing it to go right under Marmeladov’s glove. As the minutes kept flying into the period, the Raiders took three quick penalties, losing them the momentum. First, Ellie Werenski was punished for hooking and made his way to the sin bin. A few minutes after he was out, it was Eric Pelletier who was at his turn punished for hooking. During that two minutes, the penalty kill of the raiders managed to keep the Falcons at bay. However, the following penalty to Werenski was too much for the tired players and Mathias Victorsson managed to fool Enticer with a few seconds before the final buzzer of the period.

Disaster hit during the last leg of the game, however. The Raiders started the period with a man disadvantage when Trucker Grogan was punished by the officials for boarding barely 30 seconds after the start. It wasn’t long during the penalty for Vijanupatan Singh to find the back of the net and chase Enticer from the game. Barely two minutes after Jordin FourFour Jr. took place in front of the net, he had to face another penalty kill when Ted Glass received a 2 minutes for hooking. Victorsson welcomed the goaltender in the game when he managed to beat him on the blocker side, gaining a big lead on the Raiders. The momentum changed slightly when Arrivabene received a penalty for high sticking, but the raiders weren’t able to capitalize on it, unlike the Falcons. They weren’t able to keep the momentum once the penalty was over and around 15 minutes into the period, Marks managed to score on FourFour Jr. putting the game away from the Raiders. Grogan received a penalty for hooking a couple of seconds later, which prevented Halifax to do anything in the remaining time. Instead, it created enough opening for Victorsson to score his third of the night and witness a rain of caps as most of the Falcons fan present in the arena threw their hat on the ice. As if it was not already over for the Raiders, the officials decided to punish Lukas Müller for hooking with barely one second remaining into the game. He barely sat into the box that the game was over, leaving a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.

The unsung hero of the match for the Raiders was Dwayne Wyder. Despite being sent to the sin bin for Interference, Wyder managed to find the back of the net once. He also had two shots and one hit during his 21 minutes on the ice.