The Red Liners faced a tough challenge against their first round opponents, the Rats C3. They have met up against the Rats six times in the past five season but only one once (their first meeting). These opponents have basically only lost to teams this season that are ranked higher than them. With that, the Liners captains along with Coach Dan amped up their players with a simple strategy: Play physical from the start of the game. It would be a winning strategy.
The guys and gal in red set the tone for the game but matching the Rats fast paced and hard hitting style. The first period was a back and forth affair with the Liners firing more shots on goal while the Rats had more breakaways. The great saves by the Liners goalie, Pats, kept the Rats off the scoreboard. The first goal of the game began with Queen Steph’s wrist shot from the point bouncing to Mixy. He found the open Tyty in the slot who popped it for a powerplay goal.
The momentum swung to the Rats after two unanswered goals (with one a shorthanded goal) in the first half of the second period. But the Liners came fighting back with strong forechecking by B-hole, Pauly, Dr. Watson, and Don Juan. It would be Twank who took a chance with a wrap around goal that bounced off the Rats’ netminders pads and into the net.
Knowing that the Rats’ bench was short, the Liners also attempted to exhaust their opponents by drawing matching penalties, forcing the Rats to have fewer players to rotate as well as putting their shooters into the penalty box. Doc took out one of their better players at the end of the second period. The Liners too advantage by a quick thrust at the start of the third period. Baby would find a loose puck near the goal and chip it past the Rat’s goalie. With the lead, the Liners slowly began to go into defensive mode. Bleech, Sobo, Judge Jimmie, and the Spout admirably forced the Rats to the boards and limit their shots on net. Big Joe continued with the Liners’ secondary strategy by fighting with the Rats’ top player who ended up in the penalty box for four minutes. However, the Rats would tie it up with less than a minute to play after an errant rebound in front of the Liners’ goal was easily fired into the empty net.
This epic match up was decided on penalty shots. Luckily, the Liners had more offensive depth than the Rats. Shooting first, Toto scored with his shootout move #2 (skate across the slot, shoot into the five hole). The Rats’ top player score in the second round. But it would go all the way to the sixth round before Tyty deked the Rats’ goalie for the game winning goal.
The Liners took Coach Dan’s message to heart and executed the plan as best as they could. In the end, the hard work with some luck finally got their first win against the Rats in 6 tries. They will likely face a tougher challenge as they face the winner of the Devils vs. Fireballs game. The next matchup will be on Wednesday, 7:10pm at JIH East.