Letter of Marque
Falling Short
Article written by french sport journalist Evok
S35G34

<div align="center">Halifax Raiders 2 || Montreal Militia 3</div>

The last stop of the longest road trip of the season for the Raiders was in Montréal. They would face the Militia in the Olympic Stadium. They were hoping to win the match in order to bring a few more points home as they currently had only one victory in the 4 game stretch.

The first period was great for the Raiders as they managed to gain most of the control of the game. They were mostly on the attack, but missed a lot of nets. That’s until Tyler Toews decided to test Thaddeus Prince. Prince was focus on the puck and could have done an easy save if it wasn’t of Chuck Bernstein that deflected the puck at the last moment, putting it right under the glove. Right before the period end, Vinny Marino put his team in an hard position when he received a penalty for hooking. This meant the Raiders would start the second period with on the penalty kill for close to 2 minutes. Larry Enticer, Halifax goaltender, managed to block all 5 shots toward him during the period. Prince on his part managed to block only 7 of the 8 shots.

The Raiders penalty kill was able to keep the Militia at bay and defended pretty effortlessly. They had the opportunity to take back to momentum of the game when Marko Mäenpää was sent into the sin bin after tripping one of the Raiders. Now on the power play, Halifax tried to capitalize on it but was pushed back by the Militia special unit. This was enough to generate more attack from the Raiders and close to the middle of the period, Bar Downski managed to beat Prince right in the top corner, putting his team up with 2 goals lead. However, the goal difference was short lived. Not even two minutes later, Michael Walker buried the puck behind Enticer after a great pass from Elias Lindstrom. The two teams went back and forth the ice a few times but no team really managed to break the score for the rest of the second leg.

The start of the last period started with a bang as Adamlin Timlinsin decided to square off against Oliviz Klozoff. The officials decided to stop the fight before any of them got hurt and Timlinsin was ejected from the game. This seems to invigorate the Militia as they decided managed to tie up the game a few seconds before the middle of the period. After that, the two teams had to try to keep the score even while on the penalty kill. The Raiders were punished twice in a row when Klozoff was punished for slashing and Montek Ramrap receive a penalty for hooking. Fortunately for them, both time they managed to keep the score even. After, they had the opportunity on the power play after Gilfred Alfredsson was sent to the sin bin for high sticking. However, the defense from Montreal stood their ground. As no one managed to score during the few minutes remaining, they had to go in overtime.

During the next 5 minutes, in the overtime period, both goaltender performed really well, managing to block 5 shots each. The Raiders had an opportunity to end the game when Ryan Strathairn received a penalty for Hooking, but never managed to set up an attack. The game then moved into the shootout.
Thaddeus Prince stopped both Vinny Marino and Bar Downski in the first two shoters.
Enticed managed to stop Michael Walker while Buddy Light shot wide.
Goal rained on Prince as both Cody Fletcher and Yuri Boyka Jr. scored on him.
It was the same for Enticer, Allowing goals by Ojala and Lindstrom.
Thing changed however when Trucker Grogan missed the net.
It was up to Auston McJesus to win the game with a goal and he managed to beat Enticer !

The unsung hero of the match for the Raiders was Bar Downski. The game was hard for the raiders, however, Downski managed to stand out when he scored the second goal of the game on his only shot directly on the net. He spent almost 21 minutes on the ice.