Hello, one and all, to another edition of SMJHL Today. In this installment, we take a look at an early-season matchup of inter-conference rivals. The Saint Louis Scarecrows, stalwarts in the Eastern Conference, were set to take on [at the time] the best in the west in the Kelowna Knights. This game sure was a tight one, and from what we'll see both teams pretty much stuck to their gameplans heading in. It literally came down to the very end.

Let's look at the Keys to the Game for each side:

St Louis

• Get the puck to Frans. Frans Erichsen, the rookie sensation, is having an incredible year. Although we're covering this game in retrospect to the regular season, he was leading not just rookies - but the entire league in points for the majority of the schedule. He finished the year with 29 goals. St Louis would need some of his offensive magic to assure themselves of the victory.
  
• Keep up the shots. Kelowna's defense is more finesse-oriented. They don't hit, but they sure do block shots. It's up to a high volume team like St Louis to not lose sight of the goals - literally.
  
• Maintain physical presence. St Louis has found themselves in a dominant position when the hits numbers are on their side, but the speed of Kelowna should have them worried on that front. It's up to especially the low liners of defense -- like Joe Kerr and Danny Foster to beat up on those speedy Knights forwards.
  

Kelowna

• Get a good game from Laukkanen. Kelowna's beast between the pipes, Mikke Laukkanen, needs to be on point. Should the Kelowna defense break down, St Louis is great at chasing rebounds. He's gotta limit the number of times the Scarecrows can crash the net.
  
• Get some production from the lower lines. The St Louis defense, as I just discussed, is going to be headhunting on Lines 2-4. That's simply because their first line is perhaps the most dominant set of forwards in the SMJHL. Kelowna, however, might see an early advantage in their forward depth. Dieter Dominique is sure to be a focal point as the 2nd-line center. The 4th line could take advantage of a tired Harry Hans who's on double-duty again tonight.
  
• Stay out of the box. For how little Kelowna hits, they need to avoid penalties when they actually decide to lay the lumber. Although this shouldn't be a problem, they have a few usual suspects when it comes to PIMs. Namely, Mia Landvik and Fedor Shirobokov.
  

Now that those are out of the way, let's get some highlights in, since we had a little bonus play in there:

1st period - Kelowna strikes first, St Louis counters
It took quite a while for these offenses to get going. A lot of missed passes, hits off the puck, and missed opportunities. Neither team even reached double-digit shots in the 1st period (St Louis with 7, Kelowna with 9). Very rare for these two teams to be held to such low numbers. It wasn't until the 12th minute that the tie was broken:

Holmes corrals the bouncing puck, gets it to Matteo who heads up the ice. He looks for Greenholm up ice - intercepted by Justice! It's an odd-man rush for Kelowna! It gets to Mazmiesis. He fires to Mia Landvik, she mishandles the puck! She had a shot there but didn't take it ... back to Mazmiesis. The St Louis defense files in but Kelowna is still attacking. Back to Landvik ... AGAIN to Mazmiesis ... he waits for an opening ... over to Zamloch, FIRES ... SCOOOOORES! the fourth line gets the first goal, just like we talked about pre-game ... Kelowna up 1-0!

Play was rather even for a few more minutes. But, in the final minutes of the first, a Kelowna miscue led to the equalizer:

The Knights are still playing with a lot of speed and spunk. It seems like that early goal really helped with morale ... Landry trying to get something going and Dolph Ziggler intercepts it for Kelowna. He gets it over to Bernard Frederic. Landry ... RACING over and STEALS the puck! He's got all the Kelowna defense behind him! Erichsen's all alone - the pass across Laukkanen ... GOOOOOAL!! Frans Erichsen thanks to DarryL Landry on a HELL of a hustle play. Wow, you don't see that too often. This St Louis team is something special.

3rd period - Landvik goes Crazy
The Scarecrows had put themselves up 2-1 a few minutes into the 2nd period by way of a great goal from Kevin Smith. Kelowna was doing their best to fight back, and they were even winning the battle in hits, but it wasn't til a powerplay with 5 minutes left in the game that Mia Landvik decided to take matters into her own hands.

...Going into the 2nd half of this powerplay. Holmes has played a great game for the Crows thus far, having a great start to this young season. But now they're in trouble. This PK unit for St Louis is VISIBLY tired as Mia Landvik passes it over to Dominique. He moves it back to Landvik. FIRES ONE and that's blocked by Feist. No one else around the puck, Landvik grabs it again. Gets it back to Dominique ... to Shirobokov ... he SHOOTS and Rivet was in front of that before his stick went up. But it's Landvik again SHE'S STORMING THROUGH! .... HITS THE POST! Holmes is scrambling, he doesn't know where it went ... Landvik gets it AGAIN! She dekes past Rivet ... SHOT ... SCORE!!!! Landvik was NOT giving up, what a play from the Knights superstar!

The Shootout: Down to their Last 'Out
Overtime was quite a defensive battle. It might not have been defense, though, as much as fatigue. Neither team could even complete three consecutive passes. It was a dismal five minutes of play, with only 2 shots on goal from each side. It was clear by the end that the players slated for a shootout were saving their strength. It only paid off for one player - who else but Harry Hans:

Hans stepping to center ice. Man, he looks mean. I'd hate to be Mikke Laukkanen right now. With Yanovich looking on nervous, knowing he must absolutely score, I'd say it all comes down to this.

Here we go! Hans shuffles up ice rather nonchalantly. Doesn't want to give Mikke a hint either way. A nice, large deke ... now he's shuffling the feet. Spins around - lots of pageantry, here ... finally rushes on net ... a flick of the wrist, IT'S IN FOR A GOOOOOOAL! Harry Hans has broken the tie with a simple wrister to the top shelf. I'd say that's all she wrote, folks! What a great game from both sides.

Naturally, as the commentary predicted, Yanovich missed his shot and the Scarecrows went home with 2 points.

Other key performances: Fedor Shirobokov kept himself out of the penalty box but, just as importantly, he laid people OUT. Five hits and three shot blocks in a great game ... Alexander Charlyb'y once again lived up to his specialty, winning 23 of 33 faceoff opportunities ... Joe Kerr didn't do much in one of his first games as a Scarecrow, and his partner Danny Foster only had two hits, but they didn't let up any goals on their line!

Final Score
St Louis - 3 (SO)
Kelowna - 2