December 18, 2019 - Peter Croslen

On Tuesday, the Anaheim Outlaws — still searching for a playoff bye — hosted the rival Lethbridge Lions, at the Outlaw Saloon.

Both teams remain focused on the looming SMJHL playoffs, but the Lions managed to frustrate the Outlaws in their second win in back-to-back games, beating Anaheim 3-1.

Center Kevin Robinson scored the lone goal for the Outlaws (17th of the season), and backup goalie Strom Chamberlain made 25 saves in goal. But the biggest save came from veteran Lethbridge goaltender,  Steven Vassallo. Vassallo turned away 19 of 20 Outlaw shots and recorded his fifth win of the season.

The Outlaws were sluggish in the first period, taking long shifts in their own zone while the Lions attempted to fly out of the gates. Neither team was able to push very much in the period. By the end of the frame, the Lions had picked up twelve first-period shots on goal compared to just nine for the Outlaws.  A goal just before the fifteen minute mark by Lion Conor Tanner (his 5th of the year) put the Lions up early 1-0.

The second period provided the Outlaws with their first meaningful chance to earn points, but they were foiled repeatedly. Lethbridge’s speed was the story for the period, as the Lions dominated the puck possession in Outlaws’ zone. The defense of both teams ramped up activity as both teams notched serious blocks in the period (4-3 Lethbridge) but also dropped down the amount of shots able to be taken on goal (8-9 Lethbridge).  Unfortunatley, despite their best efforts, the Lions were able to go up 2-0 over the Outlaws thanks to an intercepted pass and goal from Akira Ren.

Finally in the 3rd period, Anaheim answered back off of the Robinson Goal at the six minute mark.  Rintarou Okabe won an offensive face-off against Mike Richard in the Anaheim Zone and got a pass to Disisde Dayudie who then moved to pass back to the point, but missed and ended up getting an icing call placed on him.  This set up Grant Thurber to win on a face off against Lion, Riley Kruse for a one-timer shot by Robinson that just snuck past the blocker side of Vassallo.

Unfortunately the Outlaws never got good sustained offensive zone time, and they allowed the Lions to score again with less than seven minutes remaining in the final period. The Outlaws were giving up too much in the neutral zone and did not recover it quickly enough when they failed to pass out of the defensive zone.

Coming off Tuesday’s loss, the Outlaws stay at home to face the Halifax Raiders on Wednesday.

We were able to catch up with the Outlaws manager after the game and talk to him about the rumored trade for goaltender Kasperi Braulin and the Outlaws' playoff berth this season:

The season hasn't gone exactly the way we've expected but we're still excited for the playoffs, all the teams from 5th place to 10th place are neck and neck in points and so we feel like we still have room to make some noise in the playoffs and make a little run. For now the goal for the last 10 or so games is to grab one of those bye spots, we're only 2 and 3 points out of them and have an easier schedule going forward so we think we can grab one of those and get ourselves straight into the 2nd round. The trade was a big one for us, obviously losing a talented winger like Raquel hurt but Raquel would be going up after the season and that simply didn't fit with the timeline of this team who we feel will be primed to compete next season. We picked up a mid level draft pick for next season which we think will be able to give us an added boost as we push for the Cup in S52. On top of that we got Kasperi Braulin, a goalie with lots of experience in the SMJHL and a previous goalie of the year winner. Kasperi is going to be a big part in helping the development of Storm Chamberlain who we see as the franchise's goalie of the future, getting to train with one of the league's top and most experienced goalies every single day will do wonders for him and removing the pressure of having to perform in the playoffs should take a weight off his shoulders that could've crushed his confidence.

Kasperi Braulin couldn't be reached for comment on his trade to Anaheim.

my favourite article of yours thus far

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my favourite article of yours thus far

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