Day 2, we couldnt get a watcher for the Dragons games. Not much to be said in general
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2-1 for the Dragons. Very sluggish game after spending all their energy against stronger teams like Hamilton, Baltimore and Tampa.

Day 3, and the final day of the preseason. The watcher is awake and looking ahead into the Calgary Dragons last games before the regular season. Currently standing with 2 wins and 2 losses in their preseason, they look to make their record even better. Facing the newly reborn Winnipeg Aurora first, and the New Orleans Specters after. Will they make it better? Just one way to find out.

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First proper chances in the game do come for Calgary Dragons. First up Aumy Jr gets a good shot on goal, which gets blocked by Vincent Mietitore. Right after that, Taylor Johansson wins the faceoff right and clean, and Chris Goodname whacks it immediately, but his shot gets blocked by Parker Smeb. The puck rolls right back to Calgary Dragons zone, as they apparently forgot to keep their blueline clean, and defend. Dwayne Gretzky is able to clean up the puck in the Calgary Dragons zone, and makes his first shot of the game for his team. The shot gets deflected by Bas O'Bigbers right behind Dragons goaltender Zhen Roza. The Aurora take the rather early lead in the game as O'Bigbers shows up big for his new team. Right after the goal, the Dragons are having a rather hard time in their minds, the early goal from Winnipeg was not what they had hoped for, having a hard time leaving their own end of the ice, not even being able to cross the red line for a while. After 5 minutes of suffering, the Dragons are able to get more grip of themselves, and do begin to actually play hockey. Right after the 10 minute mark, Calgary had plenty of chances to equalize the game, but without success. Vincent Mietitore is right where he needs to be. Calgary picks up few penalties in the first period, but the Aurora are unable to make use of their powerplay advantage. The Aurora scores their second of the game after a solid blueline possession. Parker Smeb has the guts to shoot it first, but his first shot gets blocked up by Eero Mäkelä, but Smeb's second shot is very much better than his first one, and is able to get the puck past Zhen Roza for the second time in the game. Aurora heading into the second period with strong defensive success, as Mietitore was able to block 15 shots in the first period.

As we head into the second period, both teams are taking it very easy. Not much action is happening during the first minutes of second period. Most notable event happening on the ice is the two penalties that the Calgary Dragons took for themselves. For shame, you dirty bastards. Although being on 2-man advantage for almost 1.5 minutes, the Winnipeg Aurora are unable to take advantage of their powerplay again, and are 0/4 after 25 minutes of playing time. If the Aurora wish to win the game, they really need to step up and take the advantages they are given. Speaking of which, Danny Marston makes it 3-0 for the Aurora after first taking the puck away from Esa Parmborg in their own end with a brilliant hit. Like said about the Aurora taking their chances, the Dragons do need to take theirs too. At Winnipeg's third goal mark, they have almost double the shots on goal in comparison to their opponents, and the goals are still 3-0 for Winnipeg. Looks like the Dragons thought that Winnipeg was going to be as easy of an opponent as last season. Right after Marston's goal, the Aurora take more defensive approach towards the game. Having a 3 goal lead in a game of hockey is more than enough to win - especially if your opponent has none. Despite the Dragons taking their advantage on the blueline, banking shots from left and right and looking to deflect and gather up rebounds, they are unsuccesful in their attempts. 5 minutes left into the second period, and Calgary Dragons manage to actually score a goal. Esa Parmborg's shot gets first saved by Mietitore, and the deflection corrals into the corner for Nyström to be picked up. He then passes it back to Parmborg, who finds LaFleur on a very open spot for him to just redirect it in. 3-1 for the Aurora, but the goal was very crucial for Dragons to gain morale towards the end of the period, and especially for third period. Their goal is almost matched up by Winnipeg, as Luukas Lilja takes Calgary's fifth penalty of the game. Despite having five attempts on powerplay, the Aurora are unable to score one past Zhen Roza. Second period ends in Winnipeg's lead, but the Dragons are on the hunt for more.

Right at the beginning of third period, Winnipeg have changed their mentality towards the game. Realizing that they are the better team here, their defensive approach towards the game is thrown right out of the window. Having pressure over their opponents leads to their fourth goal of the game, as Gregory Goode is able to deflect Johnny Shuffleboard's shot from the blueline behind Zhen Roza, taking Winnipeg back to their three goal lead. As we go deeper into the third period, Winnipeg now have the complete edge over their opponents. Calgary did not manage to make a single shot against Aurora's goaltender Mietitore, while making chances from left and right themselves. Right before the buzzer, Calgary do strike for the second time. A-Rye Izzy finds himself in a good position to catch Vincent Mietitore off-guard, but his shot is valiantly tipped behind Mietitore by Esa Parmborg. Game is now 4-2 for Winnipeg, and we have less than two minutes of playing time left. Needless to say, the Dragons were the true underdogs in this game, as Winnipeg takes it home 4-2.

Thats enough of that, Calgary's record during the preseason stands at 2 wins and 3 losses, so 2-3. A rather underwhelming start to their season, and they look forward to making it better for themselves. We managed to catch Luukas Lilja after the game against Winnipeg to say a few words about their performances.

You managed to play some good hockey against Baltimore and Hamilton, but fell down to the likes of Winnipeg and Tampa Bay. How are you so inconsistant currently, and how are you going to fix that as we head into the regular season in a few weeks?
We just had better preparations against those stronger teams. We really did not take New Orleans and Winnipeg for granted, and that did cost us heavily. The game against Manhattan was also very close, but we really did get a grip in the end and did not look back. Fixing the situation needs us to be more on the lookout against all teams in the league. We need to do proper preparations against each team in the league if we wish to make another successful run in the regular season, and especially in the playoffs. Every game counts, is what we learned here, you just cant sleep on any team nowadays.


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Wow that preseason was just like our regular season, some good wins but inconsistent, guess we should have seen it coming!

Nice writeup!

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