Letter of Marque
Straightening Up A Bent Mast
Article written by french sport journalist Evok
S35G27

<div align="center">Halifax Raiders 3 || Kelowna Knights 2</div>

The Raiders left their home after 3 hard defeat. In no game they scored more than 2 goals and during their morning practice, everyone worked on shooting drills. They had to find a way to get the wind blowing in their sails to win a few games. They took the road for a short road trip, with the first stop against the Kelowna Knights.

Into the first periods, the referees saw a lot of actions. Everything started when Clint Eastwood received a penalty for interference 20 seconds into the period. This opened a door for the raiders to attacks, but Sebastian Thompson was a wall in the Knights net. At the 5 minutes mark, Eddie Andrezjeck also put his penalty kill units on the ice after being sent to the sin bin for hooking. Once again, Kelowna goaltender stood on his head to prevent the Raiders to take the lead. Raiders’ Dwayne Wyder received a costly 2 minutes for tripping when he saw from the box John Langabeer outplay Jordin FourFour Jr. and was released by the officials. Vinny Marino wasn’t able to stay disciplined and was saw by the referees tripping one of the Knights players. Fortunately, his team’ penalty kill unit prevented Kelowna to score. He redeemed himself soon after stepping out of the box. He managed to sent a cannon that was deflected by Hans Sørensen into the goal, evening the score. Unfortunately, in the following minutes. Montek Ramrap put the Raiders special unit back on the ice who were able to keep the Knights as bay.

The second period saw no goals and little shots on goals. The Raiders were limited to only 1 shots on Thompson while the Knights managed to tests FourFour Jr. 6 times. However, the officials in the penalty box saw a bit more actions, especially the one sitting in the Knights box. 5 minutes into the second leg, Tim Pawlak was the first to go sit in it after a tripping call. Later in the period, Jake Sanders and Étic Pelletier had an altercation that sent both of them into the sin bin, for Slashing and Tripping respectively. The last player who spent two minutes with the off ice officials was Erik Koskinen when he was sent by the referees for tripping one of the Raiders.

In the third period, the Raiders were able to take a good control on how the fight was going. The first cannonball was sent by Yuri Boyka Jr barely 3 minutes into the game, gaining the lead. Following that, it was Cody Fletcher that managed to overcome Thompson and gain a 2 goal cushion for his team. It created some agitation for the Knights and Fedor Shirobokov was the first to pay the price when he was sent to the sin bin for Tripping. It’s Marino however that cost the most to his team a few minutes later. He was given a 2 minute for holding but barely spent 30 seconds on the bench after Andrezjeck managed to crack the defense of the Raiders. Clint Eastwood got a little bit too insistent to create attack opportunity when he holded back one of Halifax player and was punished for it. A few minutes before the end of the game, Koskinen was once again into an altercation with a Raiders player, he tripped Marino and when this one got up, he tried to retribute with a cross check. The referee had nothing of it and sent both of them to the sin bin for the rest of the game. Seeing the time fly, the Raiders managed to hold during the 4 on 4 and were happy to take away the first game of their road trip.

The unsung hero of the match for the Raiders was Trucker Grogan. With an assist in hand, the big defenseman also successfully performed 2 hits and blocked 3 shots during the game. He spent 22 minutes on the ice.