Developing Day 4; Shootout

Blue Team 5, White Team 4 SO(3-2)

Today's scrimmage had all the fireworks of the Fourth of July. Well mostly in the third anyway. The first and second periods saw some tight checking with a 1-1 tie after the first. The blue team scored a late goal in the second and eventually went up 3-1 midway through the third. Goals seemed hard to come by and chances were kept to the outside.

Braden Holtby played much better today (after allowing six goals yesterday), with some great saves to keep the blue team in. He had a great stop late in the second period on Andrew Glass. Glass and a teammate got behind the defense on a mini two on one. Holtby read the play beautifully and robbed Glass of a goal with less than a minute left in the second.

Then the white team struck in the third, Oskar Osala scored to make it 3-2, then they tied it on a Bobby Butler goal. But Andrew Gordon scored for the blue to make it 4-3 with about two minutes left.

With a minute left, Dan Dunn (white's goaltender) was pulled to allow an extra attacker and since I was on the far side of the rink I didn't see who scored the game tying goal, but Karl Alzner had the pretty assist to send the game to... Shoot Out! Screw overtime.

Below is the tally in the shootout:
Blue team was first in each round
Round 1 - Patrick McNeil, goal - Paul Crowder, miss
Round 2 - Philip DeSimone, goal - Oskar Osala, goal
Round 3 - Francois Bouchard, save - Steve Pinizzotto, goal
Round 4 - Andrew Gordon, miss - Nikita Kashirsky, save
Round 5 - John Carlson, miss - Maxime Lacroix, miss
Round 6 - Kyle Laughlin, miss - Bobby Butler, save
Round 7 - Jake Hauswirth, goal - Josh Godfrey, save

Holtby gave a celebritory fist pump on the last white team's chance. And why shouldn't he? He was my stand out player for the blue team. The blue team came out with a little more desperation since falling behind in scrimmage one and eventually losing 8-4. That makes Saturday's tilt the scrimmage series tiebreak.

On the white side, Osala was my stand out player of the game. He used his sized much better this scrimmage. His shot is quick and hard too, but I would have liked to see it hit the net more. His overall play was good, he even had a couple of back checks late in the game to help his team stay in it.

Honorable mentions for the stand out players were, Glass for the white team. He plays hard and loves to get physical. Some of his hits lead to chances down the ice. Gordon for the blue team also gets honorable mention, he scored a goal and nearly had a second. He used his speed well to pressure the defensemen.

Francois Bouchard did not have a great game. He was held scoreless and was sent to the sin bin twice. The white team took advantage of one of his penalties. Mathieu Perrault did not play today, but Craig Laughlin's kid, Kyle, did. And I believe he scored as well.

What I did notice was a lot of missed passes. Players could easily step around the first defender, but couldn't seem to find the open man's tape. Often good scoring chances never cultivated because of an arrant pass or miscommunication.

Tomorrow will be a light morning skate for both groups, with fanfest on Saturday and the final scrimmage for development camp.