Halifax Raiders 5 at Montreal Militia 4
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BRIEF SUMMARY
Halifax took down the Militia in a battle of the bottom of the eastern conference, going up 3-1 in the 4 games series they have shared so far. The Raiders got off to a strong start, and almost let it go, but managed to resist the late Militia onslaught to produce a victory.

IN DEPTH GOAL DESCRIPTIONS

Quote:Azarov skates into the Militia zone and dumps it, 2nd line and pair coming on for Halifax. Harris retrieves the puck, sends it to Watson. Watson passes it ou- RYAN HAS IT! Passes it to Banning, who gets pinned onto the boards by Watson. Banning comes out of the scrum with the puck, passes to Laing, SCORES! Great physical play by Banning to win that scrum, and a great saucer pass straight onto Laing’s stick to set the play up. 1-0 Halifax.

1. Halifax Raiders , Reed Laing 4 (Colin Banning) at 2:28

Quote:Oh! Harris makes the glove save on Flower’s wraparound! Montreal sends on its 2nd defensive PK pair as we line up for the faceoff in Militia territory. Reed wins the faceoff, sends it to Lindst- WHAT A STOP BY HARRIS! IVERSEN PICKS UP THE REBOUND, SENDS TO FLOW- IT’S IN THE NET! Harris struggles to start off the 1st, and the Raiders are up a heavy margin to start the game with that PP goal!

2. Halifax Raiders , Niklas Flower 2 (Greta Iversen, Victor Lindstrom) at 8:34 (PP)
As we move into the 2nd period, the shots are 17 to 14 for the Militia, but the goals are 2-0 for Halifax.

Quote:Reflieux dumps the puck into the Raiders zone, 3rd line and 2nd pair comes on for Halifax. Harris retrieves, passes to Wells, over to Nolan Angello in the neutral zone, flipped to Granlund who skates into the raiders zone. He stops, and Montreal gets into position. He passes to Cleo Green, Angello, Zach Zyvleski, skates past the defen- HE SCORES! Wonderful goal by Zyvleski, Montreal is back in this one!

3. Montreal Militia , Zach Zyvleski 6 (Nolan Angello, Cleo Green) at 2:11

Quote:Reed wins the faceoff, it’s on Banning’s sti- BAILEY WITH THE LATE HIT! CAN’T BELIEVE HE WASN’T CALLED FOR THAT ONE! Banning goes 1-2 with Azarov, pinned on the boards by Ryan Vas. Bailey comes out with it, sends it to Forbrook, outlet pass to Watson, takes a slapper, OH MY GOD BANNING SKATES BACK TO GET IN FRONT OF IT, SENDS IT TO PIETRA VOLKOVA, SHE’S ON A BREAKAWAY! PUTS A MOVE ON HARRIS, SCORES! WHAT AN EFFORT BY COLIN BANNING TO GET IN FRONT OF THAT ONE! MERELY SECONDS AFTER MONTREAL SCORES, HALIFAX RESPONDS!

4. Halifax Raiders , Pietra Volkova 2 (Colin Banning) at 2:53

Quote:Halifax’s 1st Defensive unit comes on. Harris retrieves the dump, picked up by Toast, on to Granlund, who dumps it. Montreal sends on their 2nd PK forward unit and top  PK unit. Hocolate picks it up, Banning now has it. Sends it to Flow- ANGELLO POKES IT LOOSE AND STEALS IT! PASSED TO ORLOV, BACK TO ANGELLO, SHO- DEFLECTED BY VIKSTROM! MONTREAL WITH THE SHORTHANDED SCORE! BACK WITHIN 1 GOAL!

5. Montreal Militia , Henrik Vikstrom 3 (Nolan Angello, Viatcheslav Orlov) at 12:01 (SH)

Quote:Reflieux gets it, passes it to Kaiser in the militia zone, he dumps it. 4th line, 3rd pair comes on. Green retrieves, intercepted by Iversen, pass to Laing. She fails her move, but Lindstrom picks it up. Pass to Laing, back to Ivers-STOLEN BY WELLS! OH AND IVERSEN SMASHES WELLS WITH A HUGE HIT! Sends it back to Laing, SHE SHOOTS! IT MISSES, TOUCHER PICKS IT U- HE SNEAKS IT PAST HARRIS’ GLOVE! WHAT AN EFFORT BY THE ENFORCER LINES! Kirkstone enters the game.

6. Halifax Raiders , Fred Toucher 3 (Reed Laing, Greta Iversen) at 15:14

Quote:Maatta ices it. Reed sets up to take the faceoff against Granlund in the Militia zone. Reed wins it, sends it to Lidstrom, Pass to Azarov, over to Volkova. Shot taken, misses the net. Picked up by Iversen, tries to sneak it but Kirkstone makes another save. Lindstrom picks it up, sends to Azarov, TO REED! IT’S A GOAL! THIS GAME HAS GOT TO BE OVER NOW, 5-2, COMMANDING LEAD FOR THE RAIDERS!

7. Halifax Raiders , Alex Reed 3 (Solaire Azarov, Victor Lindstrom) at 18:50
At the end of the 2nd period, the Raiders have scored 5 goals to Montreal’s 2. However, Montreal leads shots 22-21.

Quote:Puck dumped by Forbrook. The top unit comes on for Montreal. Puck retrieved by Hocolate, passed to Banning, he ices it. Granlund wins the faceoff, sends it to Zyvlevski, to Maatta. Angello now has it, STOLEN BY KOSONEN! HE OUTLETS TO BANNING, OH ORLOV SKATES BACK AND POKES IT LOOSE! PASS TO ANGELLO, HE BEATS HOCOLATE TOP LEFT CORNER! Does Montreal have a chance?

8. Montreal Militia , Nolan Angello 4 (Viatcheslav Orlov) at 3:33

Quote:Zyvlevski lines up for the faceoff against Reflieux after Shea’s penalty. Zyvleski goes early, Russett skates in to take his place. Reflieux beats the winger on the faceoff, passes to Lindstrom, moved into neutral zone, past the red line and dumped. Zyvlevski retrieves it, looks for a pass to Obama, but it ends up icing. Zyvlevski beats Reflieux on the faceoff in the Militia zone, lays it off to Maatta, WHO LOSES TRACK OF THE PUCK! Thankfully, Cleo Green picks it up, lays it off back to Maatta, he skates into the Raiders zone. PASS TO ZYLEVSK- OH HE MISSES THE NET! Green picks it up, SNEAKS IT IN! MONTREAL IS BACK IN THIS ONE! 5-4!

9. Montreal Militia , Cleo Green 4 (Zach Zyvleski, Ilmari Maatta) at 4:04 (PP)

At the end of 3, Raiders win both the goal and shot counts, 5-4 and 37-31.

TSN TURNING POINT
While previously the Militia had been dominating the 1st period, they had nothing to show for it except a goal by opposing forward Reed Laing. Flower’s one-timer sealed the deal for the Raiders, and had it not been for a heroic performance from Jeff Kirkstone, this game would’ve been all but over much sooner.

3 STARS
3 – Zach Zyvleski (MTL)
He was a strong contributor today, and is one of the reasons Montreal even has points at this rate. 2 points, one of them a goal and the other, a missed shot turned goal by Green, he put effort into the game and should be recognized with the 3rd star.
2 – Jeff Kirkstone (MTL)
Unfortunately he did not start the full game, but Jeff Kirkstone stood tall, stopping 18 of 19 shots faced to give his team a chance in this one. Unfortunately, he takes the loss because he gave up the game winner, but he definitely was a strong backbone to the 3rd period militia.
1 – Nolan Angello (MTL)
WTF, 3 Militia players make up the 3 stars in a Raiders win? Maybe that tells you a lot about the other Militia players this game. Angello was by far the best player on either team today, racking up 3 points, 1 goal and 2 assists, one of his shots being deflected by Henrik Vikstrom. He was all over the ice, both offensively and defensively, and deserves the 1st star in this one.