Tonight on Day 39 of the S49 SMJHL regular season, we have the Colorado Raptors (12-12-5) taking on the hometown Anchorage Armada (11-15-1) in a battle to get out of the bottom-half, or should I say “gulag”, of the standings. The Armada are (7-3-0) in their last 10 games after coming off of a 7-2 shellacking of the Montreal Militia, while the Raptors are (3-6-1) in their last 10 and are also coming off a big 7-3 win over the top-seeded Detroit Falcons. In net we have veteran netminder Knox Booth (10-10-4) for the Raptors facing off against rookie tender Ian Venables (11-11-1) of the Armada.

1st Period
The Armada started out strong with heavy pressure in the Raptors’ zone. They got 7 shots on net within the first 20 seconds, which included Darnell Johnson hitting the post, but were not able to register a shot on the stats sheet. The lack of shots on net carried on for both teams as they shared an abysmal shot count of 2 shots to 2 at the end of the first period. Props to the defence of both teams though, as they Much of the play in this period was spent in the Raptors’ zone, but the Armada were unable to make anything of their time spent in the offensive end. Much of this is due to Bo Kane’s impressive effort on the dot as he was 4 of 6 in the first and was important in relieving the Armada assault.

2nd Period
In the second frame, we cut to the 8th minute of the period where Georgy Gorbachenko coughs up a pass in the neutral zone to Kalevi Karhunen who then quickly passes to Jonas Larsen who gains the zone. Larsen takes a shot on net and is met by the pads of Knox Booth, but he leaves a rebound for Stavros Halkias who roofs the loose puck to make it 1-0 Armada. However, the Raptors did not wait long to equalize the game. Only a minute and 20 seconds after the Armada goal, Jake Peralta wins the face-off in the Armada zone to Hariken Urawa who snipes on past Ian Venables to tie the game at 1-1. This game definitely did not wait long to shotgun the goals after the weak first period. It only took 18 seconds after Urawa tied the game for the Armada to answer right back. After a couple of missed shots, Samuel Michaud takes a shot that is blocked by Vorian Atreides, but the shot redirects to Augustus Wang who fires one top shelf on Booth to regain the Armada lead at 2-1. The shots after this period remained tied at 9 to 9. The Armada definitely need to improve on creating more scoring chances in the other team’s end as they were able to continuously keep the puck in the Raptors’ zone.

3rd Period
On to the third, where Knox Booth really kept the Raptors in the game by making save after save as the Armada did not let up at all this game. But late in the period, the Raptors reward Booth after Augustus Wang’s pass in the Raptors’ zone is intercepted by Daniel Kuster who beams it up the ice to Calogero Crudelli who then passes it to Derek Bohne Jr. to gain the zone. Bohne Jr. proceeds to slide a slick pass back to Crudelli who feeds Bo Kane perfectly in the slot as he makes no mistake by one-timing it by Venables to tie the game at 2-2 with just over 3 minutes to go. Neither team was able to pot one home to ice the, so we must go into overtime. Shots at regulation were 17-13 for the Armada.

Overtime
At the beginning of the extra period, Derek Bohne Jr. takes a bad diving penalty in the opening minute to make it a 4 on 3 for the Armada. On the ensuing powerplay, Knox Booth continues his stellar performance tonight with multiple saves by the Armada’s top line. His effort saves the Raptors stave off the Armada powerplay to stay alive in the extra frame. This appeared to spark the Raptors offense as they seemed to finally wake up. They dominated the overtime period by spending the last few minutes of the period in the Armada zone. Fortunately, Ian Venables held strong by stopping the 6 shots he faced in the period; all of which were great opportunities for the Raptors to ice the game. Venables was crucial in helping the Armada survive overtime as we head into a shootout. Shots during overtime were 6 to 4 in favor of the Raptors, with the Armada only registering 1 shot after their powerplay.

Shootout
The first shooter for the visiting Raptors is Emeka Valentine-Okoli. Valentine-Okoli goes forehand-backhand, but is met by the glove by Venables. Our next shooter is Jake Primeau of the Armada. Primeau tries to go five-hole, but is stopped by the right pad of Booth. The third shooter is none-other than the one who tied the game, Bo Kane for the Raptors. Kane streaks down the right-hand boards and tries to fake the shot to his backhand, but can’t put it over the pad of Ian Venables who didn’t even flinch on the fake. The second shooter for the Armada, 4th of the shootout, is Raphael D’Alcott. D’Alcott is one of the Armada’s top scorers, but his attempt to go glove-side is snatched by Booth. Opening the third round is the Raptors’ Vorian Atreides. Atreides tries to go five-hole, but could not get one by the rookie netminder Venables. Up next is Jonas Larsen of the Armada who got an assist on Augustus Wang’s goal earlier in the game. Larsen skates down and goes forehand-backhand and tries to roof it, but he ends up sending it to the moon as he misses the wide-open cage, so we must go to extra shooters. In the extra frame, Calogero Crudelli of the Raptors opens up by trying to roof one glove-side, but Venables gloves it out of the air like it was nobody’s business. Following Crudelli is Spencer MacLean from the Armada. MacLean streaks down the right side and proceeds to fake the shot entirely. Booth bites on the fake and opens up the five-hole as MacLean fakes the move to the backhand. The puck slides right through the wickets of Booth and into the back of the net as the Armada take the game 3 to 2 in the shootout.