If Game 23 was a sandwich, Anchorage's 1 goal would would be the wilted lettuce in the middle.  Meanwhile, the Raiders brought the bread, the meat, some pickles and the cheese.  Let's take a look at how it all went down.  

Period 1

The first period wasn't a total disaster for the Armada.  They had some good looks, out-shooting the Raiders 11-5.  Nevertheless, the Raiders struck first and the Armada weren't able to hit back.  The only goal in the period came at 5:51 when Raiders rookie Dominic Montgomery retrieved the puck from behind his own net, carried it out, and passed to Mr. Faceoffs in the neutral zone.  Mr. Faceoffs sent it across the ice to Richard Metcalf Jr, who dropped it back to Mikael Choybuk.  Choybuk skated the puck into the attacking zone looking for a shooting lane, but he couldn't find one.  He sent it back to Metcalf Jr who slapped a one-timer right past Larry Atta, and just like that it was a 1-0 game.

The Armada had two power play opportunities, the first coming at 7:02 when Metcalf Jr took a roughing penalty.  This would have been the perfect opportunity for Anchorage to even the score, but they just couldn't get anything going and the Raiders killed off the penalty without too much trouble.  Their second opportunity came at 14:07 off of a hooking minor for Maximillian Egger, but no dice.

The Raiders' also had an unsuccessful power play attempt at 10:58 when Vegeta Muerto tried to get one back on Metcalf Jr and ended up with a roughing penalty of his own for his troubles.  

Score at the end of the first period: 0 - 1

Period 2

The Armada out-shot their opponents again in period 2 with 17 shots to the Raiders' 10, but again it was the Raiders who scored first.  At 1:16 in the period, Mikael Choybuk got his second point of the night with a beauty of a goal off of an assist from Maximilian Egger. Kristers Dzelme took a slashing penalty at 1:49, which could have turned the tide for the Armada, but their power play was another bust and less than a minute out of the box, Kristers Dzelme went five-hole on Atta at 4:45 to put the Raiders up by 3.  

Anchorage finally got on the board at 5:27 with a quick wrister from Arsene Arsenich, but the goal didn't put much pep in their step, and on the power play at 19:55, the Raiders' Vince Rieper beat Atta on the blocker side and chased him from the net.  Did a goalie swap help the Armada in period 3?  Stay tuned to find out.  

Score at the end of the second period: 1 - 4

Period 3

With Vasil Comescu in net, the Armada started the third period with renewed energy.  Sadly, the damage was done.  The Raiders led the shots in the third, holding the Armada to just 4 shots.  Adding insult to injury, the Raiders' power play struck again with a goal from Kyle Corbett at 4:22.  Rubbing salt in the wound, the Armada were less than thirty seconds away from killing off the Lockhart penalty for goaltender interference.  

The Armada had two more power play chances, one at 9:11 and one at 17:00, but were unable to capitalize on either of them.  They lost the game handily.  

At the final buzzer, the Armada's power play had gone 0 on 7 attempts, while the Raiders went 2 for 3.  The raiders would have won the game without their two power play goals, but had the Armada been able to score on even half of theirs, we might have been looking at a very different outcome.  

Score at the end of the third period: 1 - 5

And now on to the 3 Stars of the Game!  



The THIRD STAR of the game with 2 assists and 4 hits was Rainbow Dash.  

The SECOND STAR with 31 saves from 32 shots was goaltender Nathan Cosco.

And the FIRST STAR of the game with 1 goal, 1 assist, and 2 hits was Mikael Choybuk.  

The next matchup between these two clubs should be an interesting one.