<center>Game 96 - Hallifax Raiders vs St Louis Scarecrows

</center>

Welcome to the Halifax Raiders Post-Game Show, sponsered by Off! Bug Spray, because somehow we couldn’t manage to get Raid on board. It was unfortunate.

Halifax comes into Game 96 against the St. Louis Scarecrows riding hot, having won 5 of their last 6 games and putting together their first significant streak of the season. They will be tested against the deep and powerful Scarecrows roster.

Your starting goalies are Dick Chocolate for the Halifax Raiders and Casey Holmes for the St. Louis Scarecrows! Chocolate comes into the game with an 11-9-1 record, and has posted two shutouts in his last 6 games. Holmes comes into the game 10-3-2. Halifax is up 4-2 in the season series so far. So let’s get to the action!

We start the scoring just minutes in! Fresh off a penalty kill, the Scarecrows find Halifax Captain Felix Herzog carrying the puck in on a rush. Herzog moves the puck to McArdle on the give-and-go, and both defensemen look the high scoring wingers way and leave rookie Tristan Svahn alone. Herzog finds Svahn alone and he has his 2nd goal of the season just 3 minutes and change into the contest!

It wouldn’t take long for the Scarecrows to recover, though. Halifax finds themselves pinned down in their zone a few minutes later, facing fresh legs after an icing call. Doing everything to keep the puck out, Porter blocks a shot and then forces pressure on Charlyb’y forcing him to miss the net, but it’s retrieved behind the red line by Foster, moved out to the front to Dos Diablos, then a quick in and out play across the crease as Diablos moves it to Foster then to rookie sensation Frans Erichsen and beats Chocolate to tie the game up at 1.

We quickly move to the halfway point of the first, Porzingis is in the box for Halifax on a hooking call, and the Scarecrows are moving the puck into the zone. Feist finds Strange coming up the side and Chocolate makes a daring save, but no one can find the puck and Strange is able to jump on his own rebound as the Scarecrows take a 2-1 lead.

Right off the ensuing faceoff, Jeremy Belfour takes a dangerous run at Raiders defenseman Ace McArdle and ends up with a 4 minute call for boarding. Marner moves the puck to Rosston who unloads in the slot! Dabkowski has the screen on and tips the puck, but Casey Holmes makes the save. St. Louis would go on to kill the penalty and retain the lead.

Move into the second now, the Raiders are pressing in the offensive zone. De Bruin snaps a shot at the Scarecrows need, Holmes is able to fight it off but leaves a rebound. Herzog finds the rebound and tries to backhand it at the net, it goes slightly wide but Rosston catches it behind the net and finds Holmes going against the grain and he wraps it in the short side to bring the Raiders even.

Almost to be expected at this point, the action doesn’t stop anytime soon. Just 90 seconds later, the Scarecrows get a fortunate bounce after a Eugene Feist shot ricochets off Corey Eaves shin pads and catches Chocolate reacting, leaving Danny Foster wide open at the top of the crease with nothing but net in front of him. He doesn’t disappoint, and the Scarecrows quickly regain their advantage on Fosters 2nd goal of the season and 3rd point of the night.

Next, we move to another Scarecrows power play. Blake Battle is whittling down the last seconds of his penalty and is left watching as a Porter blocked shot bounces out to Joe Kerr who blasts it past Dick Chocolate. The goal comes with 1 second left on Battles penalty and the Raiders find themselves down 2 and discouraged. Chocolate is called towards the bench and it looks like rookie netminder Carter Fleury will come in to see some time with a little under half the game left. Dick Chocolate will leave the game giving up 4 goals on 17 shots, 2 of them on the powerplay.

The change wakes up the Raiders bench, as less than 2 minutes later they find themselves moving the puck on a string in the offensive zone after Herzog intercepts Foster. Rosston moves to De Bruin, to Porter, to Herzog, back to Rosston in the slot and over to De Bruin for the one timer and Holmes barely has time to wave at it. 4-3 Scarecrows with a lot of time to go.

Halifax goes to the man advantage almost immediately as Strange takes 2 for hooking. Banning steps in and picks off Rivet in the neutral zone and finds Rosston breaking in past the defenders. Rosston advances on the breakaway but it stopped by Holmes!

To a quick breakout of the Raiders zone, De Bruin wins the faceoff to Herzog who speeds down the wing into the Scarecrows zone, drops the puck to Rosston who finds Matthew Shea coming in late. Shea skates into the slot and slides the puck over to Leif De Bruin who finds an opening and ties the game at 4 late in the 2nd period! De Bruin scores his 6th and 7th of the season.

Halifax is pumped up and find themselves drawing a hooking call out of Danny Foster, going to the PP for the 5th time in the evening, and look at this passing play! Rosston moves the puck to Marner coming in the zone, and then it’s Marner to Banning to Reflieux to Rosston. Rosston moves the puck in the rotation and passes to Dabkowski, back to Rosston, to Reflieux, to Banning at the point. Over to Rosston who creates a little space and finds Marner coming into the high slot, but the shot is blocked by Kelly Rivet! St. Louis would remain perfect on the powerplay and would finish the night 7 for 7 on the PK.

First shift of the third, Blake Battle is carrying into the St, Louis zone and is hit by Landry, Rivet collects the puck and moves it to Strange. Strange is stripped in the offensive zone but Rivet collects to loose puck and finds Strange moving towards the net. A quick pass and a shot past Fleury and St Louis is back on top quickly!

Moments later, fresh off another missed power play opportunity, the Raiders have their checking line out, Matthew Shea intercepts a Matteo pass in the neutral zone, finds center Mike Ross in the St Louis zone. Ross would throw a quick snapper at the net and Buster Hyman would tip the puck past Casey Holmes to tie it at 5!.This would be Hymen’s 4th of the season.

We move to Rosston carrying the puck into the neutral zone after a De Bruin face off win. Rosston finds a streaking Herzog coming in off the wing, and Herzog powers straight to the net and finds space over Holmes shoulder! A quick rush up the ice and the Raiders are leading this high scoring affair 6-5 with a little under 8 left to play!

Moments later, we see Sebastian Strange in the Raiders zone, snaps off a quick shot to Fleury who handles it. At 13:32, this would be the last shot St, Louis put on net, as the Raiders hold St. Louis to only 4 shots in the final frame, giving Fleury one of his easier wins in relief. Fleury would improve to 2-2-0 and would let in 1 goal on 6 shots in 28:38.

The Off! Bug Spray 3 Stars of the Evening are Carter Rosston, Felix Herzog and Leif De Bruin going #1, all coming off of 4 points nights and fuelling the Raiders comeback. Afterwards, the Raiders also gave out an unofficial ‘4th Star’ to defenseman Gorlab as he makes it to the midway point of the season without having a negative turnover game (that’s legit, run the numbers, he’s never a minus)

Final shots would be 36 to 23 for the Raiders. Halifax goes 0 for 7 on the PP with St. Louis going 2 for 4 early. Halifax would win the faceoff game, winning 44/82 and would slightly edge out the physical game, outhitting St Louis 15-14. The newly formed Banning-Lindstrom defensive unit would set the defensive pace, Banning having a team leading 3 physical takeaways and Lindstrom intercepting 15 Scarecrow passes.

We close out a wild night in Halifax as the Raiders continue their domination of the division leading Scarecrows in their season series, winning their 5th out of 7. The teams will face each other 3 more times during the Regular Season, and if the previous games have been any indication, we’ll be in for a lot of goals, as the teams have combined for 58 - 8.3 per game - throughout the season.

Thanks for tuning in, until next time, from Off! Brand Buy Spray, thank you for tuning into the Halifax Raiders Post-Game Show, and have a good night!