The Johnny’s Red Liners try not to be students of history as it seems to remind them of how to lose a winnable game and to force them to play that way. In their only matchup of the season, the Red Liners blew a three goal lead with five minutes left to play in the game. This resulted in a shootout and a tie. Liners upper management hoped to not repeat this by reminding players to play at the top of their game regardless of the opponents seeding. Looking at the final score, the players obviously listened.
The short benched Centurions and missing one of their top players would also favor the Liners. This was evident after only a few minutes as The Druck picked up Toe’s backpass and fired a slapshot from the point just past the Centurion netminder. The guys and gal in red would add three more goals (Dr. Watson amazing laser sideshot that beat the goalie, Baby grabbing pass from Twank and skating in alone to beat the goalie, and Mix’s one-time shot from Toe just ricocheting into the net.) The quickly growing goal separation began to nag some of the Centurions as the game started to become more physical.
The second period scoring began with Easy E popped in a rebound off Baby’s breakaway shot on net. The Centurions did find some life with their first and only goal of the game during a four-on-four shift. Their star player skating just inside the blue line and rifled the puck just under the crossbar. The Liners changed tactics and shadowed this Centurion for the rest of the game. But Baby would quickly regain the momentum for the Liners and never let it go. The Reign of Baby began half way through the period with the second for five more unanswered goals. He scored two goals in less than a minute on breakaways. The Liners pushed their lead to 7-1 after two periods.
The third period again had more coverage of the Centurion top player as well as a 1-2-2 arrangement to keep the scoring chances low. The Liners defense continued their consistent clearing skills by limiting shots aimed at Bigfield, the Liners goalie. The physicality continued with the Liners mostly keping their cool. Baby would continue with scoring romp with goals at the beginning, middle, and end of the period.
The game was obvious a solid effort all around especially while juggling five defensemen. Upper management watching in the stands did identify several strategies to use in the future playoff matches. Again, looking back at the only matchup between the Red Liners and Beer Bistro would probably not be useful. That game included backup goalie, Dr. Funk, from the McFetridge minor leagues, and (nine, but eventually eleven) skater. The Beer Bistro had a penalty filled, low scoring game for their first playoff matchup. The Liners may try to take advantage of the Beer Bistro’s tendency to get penalties but throwing their speedy skaters at them. The matchup is at 9:50pm on Wed, Aug 27th.