Intro

December 18th

Welcome to St Louis Missouri where tonight the Colorado Raptors(5-4-1) come to town to face the hometown Scarecrows(3-7) who have struggled as of late. Between the pipes for Colorado is Jerry Huuveri and for St.Louis Nicolae Antonescu. With 5,839 people in the building we wait for the puck to drop and see if the Raptors can beat the struggling Scarecrows.

First Period

The puck is dropped and we are off. The Scarecrows come out hungry to play quickly getting a shot off on the first shift that is easily stopped by Jerry Huuveri. Unfortunately for the Scarecrows the energy that came out with leads to a hooking penalty by Eric Hudson. Colorado sets up well in the offensive zone but never gets a clear shot onto the net to challenge Antonescu and ends with the game still tied. Later in the period the Raptors take a slashing penalty on Ryan Rieley but the scarecrows have a few botched zone entries, resulting in little time spent in the Colorado zone. The period ends 0-0, the shots 4-7 in favour of the Scarecrows.

Second Period

The Raptors are the ones to come out stronger in the second, this results in Juli Schneider chipping the puck over the glass. In a different angle it looked like the puck did hit the glass which Juli tried to shoe the ref on the Jumbotron but for the overzealous defense the ref handed out a 10 minute misconduct. The Crows kill off the penalty and gather momentum, getting the puck back into the Raptor end, Cody Sprinka hit a Raptor that was not looking and took an exception as Chris Cerullo challenged him to a fight. It was a good fight with Sprinka winning the tilt but not after Cerullo got a few good punches in. The puck is dumped in and Danny Marston grabs it from the corner to find Jericson open at the point for a perfect one timer to beat Huuveri 4:01 into the period. Not long after both Carlos Brown(Tripping) and Ryan Rieley(Roughing) took penalties to give the Scarecrows a short 5 on 3 Powerplay which never got into the zone as they gave the puck up 3 different times. Later(13:44) in the period Barkov was able to spring Drunkenbird on a rush betting the Scarecrow defender to  get a clean shot betting Antonescu upstairs to tie the game at 1. At 17:10 William Lockwood put a soft shot on net and the third of the period for the crows to score and take the lead. The next shift the Raptors who had controlled most of the play stormed down and on a Svenson shot tied the game only 32 seconds later. Second would and 2-2 and shots 10-3/14-10 for the Raptors.

Third Period

The third period was a wide open affair with each time getting great chances but both goalies were perfect. Both teams played clean as the refs did not have to make any calls. Shots were 10-7/24-17 for the Raptors still tied 2-2.

Overtime

Overtime like always is high action, there was only one whistle in the first two minutes and that was a Bryce Turner penalty for interference. The Scarecrows looked to take advantage of this, getting 5 shots on the powerplay but Huuveri shut the door. Neither side would be able to find the back of the net, shots were 2-8/ 26-25 for the Raptors.

Shootout

The Scarecrows shoot first, Danny Marston miss. Raptors Sven Svenson miss. Kriss Darzins is the first goal scorer with a shot to the 5 hole. The next two shots miss leaving Mack Daddy with the Raptors fate on his stick, he delivers with a quick deke to score. Eric Hudson puts the pressure on the Raptors again scoring  but Carlos Brown ties it right up. The next round sees Bradley Barkov with the chance to win with a Grapefruit Lizard miss. Barkov comes down with speed and fakes out Antonescu to slide the puck around the goalie and into the net for the win.

3-2 Win for the Colorado Raptors

Three Stars

3. Sven Svenson  G:1 A:0
2. Elwulf Jericson G:1 A:0
1. Hiroshi Ohira    G:0 A:1