Letter of Marque
Trying To Close The Gap
Article written by french sport journalist Evok
S35G26

<div align="center">St. Louis Scarecrows 4 || Halifax Raiders 2</div>

After two hard games, the Raiders didn’t manage to get a day of rest before their duel against the St. Louis Scarecrows. They would be facing a different team that day and instead of spending the morning in the ice, they rested a bit, watching tapes and talked strategy with the coaches.

The first period was a nightmare for the Raiders. Everything started when the Scarecrows captain, Louie Garrett received a pass from Joonas Rasmussen after a hard battled face off in Halifax zone. He managed to fool the goaltender, Jordin FourFour Jr. and set his team 1-0 a little bit over 3 minutes into the game. However, they had their chance to turn the tides when Hermanis Villy received a penalty for hooking a couple of minutes after. Unfortunately, during the power play, the Raiders weren’t able to put their special unit into motion and gain the momentum. Instead, toward the middle of the period, they saw Teddy Cuddles split the defensemen and outplay the Raiders netminder, gaining a 2 goals lead. Ted Glass received a bad penalty a little over a minute later. This lead to a power play goal scored by Riley Jako during the following two minutes. Still unable to stay disciplined, Raiders’ Cloud McCarthy was sent to the sin bin for elbowing one of the Scarecrows player at 16 minutes into the period.

The second leg went a little bit better for Halifax. Dwayne Wyder managed to light up the lamp behind Dominik Tretiak a minute into the period. Following that, Khet Chupp received a penalty for roughing and was sent to spend 2 minutes into the box. This allowed Bar Downski to close the gaps to only 1 goal when he scored on the Scarecrows goaltender. The wind turned quickly, however, and despite their effort, they weren't able to keep the score with only a 1 goal gap. Vinny Marino and Lukas Müller took quick penalties for holding and hookings and put their team on thin ice. Despite the best effort of the 3 men penalty kill, Joonas Rasmussen managed to chase FourFour Jr. of the game when he scored at 9:41 into the period. Larry Enticer, the Raiders back-up goaltender took the crease after that. He was tested fast when Oliviz Klozoff received a 2 minutes for slashing and Ellie Werenski got a penalty for holding. However, the penalty kill units was strong during those punition and Enticer only faced 3 shots.

Tretiak domination was apparent in the third period. He faced a total of 17 shots during the whole period and never flinched once in front of the Raiders. The huge amount of shots came from the fact Halifax had three power play during the 20 minutes. First player punished was Roman Augustus for High Sticking at 6 minutes into the last leg. He was followed by Seth Page for hooking around 14 minutes into the period and a few seconds after the penalty was over, it was Finn Jakobsen that was sent to the sin bin for hooking. During that time, Enticer only faced 4 shots and stayed strong on his skates. Despite their best efforts, the Raiders were unable to bring a win in their home streak and would have to take the roads after a bitter defeat.

The unsung hero of the match for the Raiders was Cody Fletcher. Despite not being able to put his name on the scoresheet, it wasn't because he was not trying. The other team netminder blocked all of his 5 shots on goal. Fletcher was also able to perform one hit during his 22 minutes on the ice.