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EricNCSU · 02-06-2020, 06:05 PM

Anchorage Armada at St Louis Scarecrows

Final Score - St. Louis: 7 -- Anchorage: 4
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Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the St. Louis Scarecrows Post Game Show. We've got highlights coming up from tonight's thrilling match-up versus the Anchorage Armada. There were a lot of highlights in this one folks, so hold on and let's dive right into it.

First Period:

Just 27 seconds into the game, James Ronlain breaks the ice! His first shot gets blocked by Jay Reeves but he collects the loose puck and blasts it home past Ian Venables. Not to be outdone, at 2:10 defenceman Ulrik Bergstrom steals the puck from Ronlain and skates it into the Crows zone, pass to Stan Hanson who slips it behind Elizabeth Doyle to tie the game! Venables seems to be giving up a lot of rebounds but so far the Crows haven't been able to pounce on it. Seven minutes in, Axel Meszaros intercepts a pass and clears it out of the Scarecrows zone.. passes up to Ruslan Zaporozhets into the Anchorage zone, back to Axel and St Louis sets up the cycle passing around the zone, finally Ruslan is open for the one timer and he rockets one past Venables to make it 2-1. At 17:26, Jay Reeves takes a minor penalty for holding and St Louis goes on the power play. Venables makes a couple stops and Anchorage is able to clear the zone. They ice the puck and it's collected by Doyle behind the net. Pass to Flash Gordon who finds a streaking Danny Marston headed up the ice, he skates all the way into the Anchorage zone and puts a shot glove side high on Venables. That's a powerplay goal at 19:18 to make it 3-1. St. Louis wins the faceoff and that's the end of the first period.

End of 1: St. Louis 3, Anchorage 1

Second Period:

The second period starts with the same intensity as the first. Right off the opening faceoff, Cyril Viskoc wins the opening faceoff and sends a feed to Augustus Wang who skates into the zone untouched and at just 4 seconds into the period rockets one past Doyle. She wasn't ready for that one apparently. That pulls Anchorage within one, but things quickly go South as 45 seconds later Ruslan slams a second one past Venables to make it 4-2 St Louis, just 50 seconds into the 2nd Period. Anchorage pulls Ian Venables at this point and puts in Sergei Potinov. The goalie change seems to have settled them down as 6 minutes in Stan Hanson puts his second past Doyle and pulls Anchorage within 1 yet again to make it 4-3. The teams go back and forth for a little bit and then 9 minutes in Ruslan takes a shot and misses the net, but then collects his own loose puck and stuffs it in on the wrap-around! Did he do that on purpose? That's his third of the game and the hats come raining down here in St. Louis! Both teams got powerplay opportunities in the second half of the period but neither were able to convert.

End of 2: St. Louis 5, Anchorage 3

Third Period:

Two minutes into the 3rd period and the 4th liners are out there getting some time, Yamamato Mitsuharu takes a shot and it deflects off Brooks Wayne but right to Eric Hudson who directs on net! Potinov lost track of it with the deflection and it's in! That's Hudson's first SMJHL goal! He'll remember that one forever. St Louis is up 2 goals now and firmly in control. Five minutes in and St Louis is firmly intrenched in the Anchorage zone. Ruslan takes a shot looking for another marker, misses the net but Ronlain scoops up the loose puck and pokes it behind Potinov who was looking the wrong way. Funky bounce off the end board there. St. Louis is up 7-3 now. Anchorage takes their timeout to talk it over and it looks like they are pulling Potinov and putting Venables back in. You don't see that very often. Eleven minutes in and Cyril Viskoc tries to take things into his own hands, stealing the puck from Ruslan and skating up the ice. Anchorage sets up in the zone and cycles it around, back to Viskoc who peppers a one-timer past Doyle. She got a glove on it but not quite enough to stop it. Once again both teams get powerplay opportunities at the end of the period but neither team can cash in and that's how this game is going to end.

End of 3: St. Louis 7, Anchorage 4 - Final Score.

Loss - Sergei Potvinov (ANC), 8 saves from 11 shots - (0.727), 24:10 minutes
Win - Elizabeth Doyle (STL), 9 saves from 13 shots - (0.692), 60:00 minutes
No Decision - Ian Venables (ANC), 22 saves from 26 shots - (0.846), 35:50 minutes

Three Stars:
Third Star - Danny Marston (STL) - 1G, 1A, +3
Second Star - James Ronlain (STL) - 2G, 2 A, +3
And your First Star is...
Ruslan Zaporozhets (STL) 3G, 1A, +3, Game Winning Goal

KenitohMenara · 02-06-2020, 07:25 PM

1. The Armada have got to get their defense in order. Only 13 shots for the entire game is unacceptable by any metric. These are the defending SMJHL champions and yet St Louis ran circles around them with seemingly very little effort resistance. While it is always incredibly helpful to have an excellent goalie like Ian Venables in net, that is not always going to be the chase. If I am the coach or the GM of the Armada, I am putting increased emphasis on defensive drills and not stopping until these mistakes are thoroughly cleared up because that is just embarrassing.

2. Having said all of that, when Anchorage did get some attacking time, they did not waste it. Scoring on 4 of the 13 shots is a pretty outstanding turn of events considering all that happened this game. Also considering that the scorers were pretty mixed throughout the line-up shows that the Armada has the depth and hunger for another cup run should they clear up the defensive issues that plagued them this game. Judging by previous performances, this game does indeed seem like an outlier in the grand scheme of things but one can never be too careful in a league as cutthroat as this one.

3. The Anchorage rookie line of Santtu Rasanen, Chris de Siren and Braden Lowrie seem to be gelling together nicely and developing into a nice unit. While none of the rookie trio had their best games tonight, they were the best line on the ice as far as defensive work went, only allowing one goal in their 16 minutes of ice time together which no matter how you slice it is very impressive for rookies. As Free Agent signing Rasanen gets more comfortable in the lineup and the rookies have more time to spend playing together, they should be able to have a quick turnaround in regards to points.

**Lime** · 02-07-2020, 07:07 PM

Faceoff Fumble

It was a rough night for Alex Reyer of the St Louis Scarecrows. Just 3 of the 14 faceoffs for Reyer went his way, an absolutely abysmal performance when the rest of his team were at the top of their game. Reyer is the weakest of the centers on his team, but still manages a respectable 50% on the season. This is certainly a night to forget for him, with no points put up and a +/- of -1. Luckily his team was able to put up enough points that the minutiae of the game were irrelevant. And that's all I have to say about that.

Second Line Silver Linings

Two players on Anchorage would grab 3 points in today's game. Stan Hanson would net 2 goals and 1 assists for the Anchorage Armada, and Cyril Vyskoc 1 goal and 2 assists. Neither feature in the 3 stars because of a dominant scarecrow performance, but if lines could win a star this would be it. The defense held together, keeping a positive +/- and leaving all the blame for the loss on that top line. There's definitely something working between these 5 players, and it will be exciting going forward to see how they improve the Armada's game.

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