<center>DEPTH SHINES THROUGH FOR FALCONS</center>

Detroit Falcons (5) vs Prince George Firebirds (3)

This post (AND PREEEE) game show is brought to you by Stride Gum: Your man won’t last long in bed? Well, at least our gum will.

PRE GAME STORY:

This is the second meeting for the two bird-themed teams. Detroit has a 1-0 lead on the series after a close-fought 3-2 game in the Jets Blue arena.

The Prince George Firebirds have started this season struggling, only winning 4 of their last 8, with 3 of those games being overtime wins. Although, after winning last night the strung out Vancouver Whalers, perhaps their season is turning around. A win tonight could give them a much needed boost to put themselves out of last place in their division and maybe give them momentum for the rest of the season.

The Falcons and team-leading scorer Maximus Sarone look to overcome similar hurdles with a slow 4-3-1 start to their S29. If they truly want to win they’ll have to take the energy out of the arena early.

Your starting goalies tonight see a young star in Ace Dafoe for the Firebirds (to avoid McFadden starting back-to-back). Dafoe looks to win his first start in the SMJHL tonight. The Falcons will put their hopes in their starter, Sivy McSieve who has played in each game this season, so far.

The starting lineups are:
<center>
Berkis-Sarone-Moleman
James-Thorvaldsen</center>

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Dupoopoo-Winter-Banger
Obrana, Monkey</center>

Let’s take you down to the Prince George Sports Colosseum and into the action.

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<center>FIRST PERIOD:</center>

The Falcons launch the first volley with Kalid Dermot scoring his second goal of the season a minute and a half into the first period. This was followed up shortly after by a killer powerplay goal came from rookie Nucky Toohoots (4), assisted by star defenseman Prince Daniel James and Tobias Thorvaldsen just seconds before the penalty was about to expire to Dean Banger. Shots were in favour of Detroit 10 to 8, although they spent 2 more minutes than PGF on the penalty kill.

<center>SECOND PERIOD:</center>

A second powerplay goal came in for Detroit on a 5-on-4 when Berzins slapped home a cannonball that Dafoe had no chance to stop. But the Falcons made a poor mistake in the Firebird zone when, due to some not-so-fancy foot/puck work, Karl Hertzberg was able to poke the puck away from Justin Novastar, pass to Obrana, who gave it to Jakobssen who was able to wrist home a sweet over-the-shoulder shot on McSieve to keep Prince George in it. Period two’s shots were, once again, favoured for Detroit 14 to 5.

<center>THIRD PERIOD:</center>

The first ten minutes of the third period were all Prince George – fired up after their first goal of the game came a period earlier. Detroit took two penalties in those first two minutes but the Firebirds were unable to capitalize on the man advantage. Then, at 11:55 in the third, Clive Stonehands did the opposite of his namesake when he deflected a shot into the goal for his first of the season and put Detroit up by two. Berkis followed this up a minute and a half later by shoving a stick in the way of Maximus Sarone’s show to, again, deflect a shot past rookie Ace Dafoe. At this point, the Falcons are up by 3 and Prince George is about ready to pack it in. But Casper Jakobssen wasn’t ready. Once again, a minute and a half past the last goal, Jakobssen wristed a high hard one over McSieve’s shoulder for his second goal of the game (and 5th of the season). This put some life into the down trodden team. Minutes later, Hertzberg dumped one, five-hole, through McSieve’s pads and put the Firebirds within 2 with a minute and a half left to the game. Then, if by the hand of god, Prince Daniel James took a 2-minute minor for holding the stick. But it appeared that the Firebird coach had packed it in and given up – PGF didn’t pull Dafoe and were unable to score anymore goals as Detroit took the contest 5-3.


Individual Player Stats and Things Of Note:

- Only 5 Falcons (who played over a minute) walked away from the game without a point, meaning the remaining 11 players managed to at least register a point (Stonehands and Toohoots came away with multi-point nights).
- Barack Obrana played nearly 27 minutes (in a game that didn’t go to overtime) and had a game-high 5 shots blocked.
- Casper Jakobson scored 2 goals, went +3, but apparently an all star performance (and the stats to match) aren’t enough to bring your team back into a game.
- Rookie Nucky Toohoots gathers two points and now has 3 multi-point games in S29.

MVP

Stride’s Longest Lasting Player of the Game is Barack Obrana! Almost 27 minutes (that’s an entire period and THEN some) of game time is all that’s required to be our Longest Lasting Player of the Game. Not to mention his 5 shots blocked, an assist, a shot, and 2 hits! Thanks Obrana! #Obrana4Prez.