With tamoxifen their first game of the season under their belts, the COHL Red Liners woke up on a sleepy Saturday morning to see dreary skies, semi-warm temperatures, and drizzle. This is definitely not the best conditions to play hockey outside. The expect
ed ten player bench compressed to nine as the flu-bug hit another one of the Red Liners. Playing at Ice Land’s smaller outdoor rink changed the lines from 5 players to 4 (2 forwards and 2 defensemen).
The Dangerfields came into this game off an 8-1 blowout of their own against White Lightning. Their offensive skills came out quickly as they scored back-to-back goals within the first 5 minutes of the first period. The Liners
seemed to be exhausted even with the smaller ice and lines. But it would be Toto who sparked an amazing unanswered 8 goal run by the Liners for the rest of that period.
Toto scored on a breakaway from Sobo where he stuffed the puck just under the Dangerfield’s netminder’s pads. The Big Dub powered his way through the crease and fired a slapshot into the far upper corner of the opponent’s net. Mixy got into the act by popping a puck over a sprawled goalie. An anonymous skater fired a slapshot into the top part of the Field net, popping the water bottle up. On a break away and dissing Toto’s pass request, Sobo fired a slapshot just inside the blue line and into the upper far corner. On the other end, Dr. Nick remained perfect on shootout attempts after a Sobo penalty.
The drizzle continued to fall and made the ice surface bumpier. Puck control was harder as evident by slow moving pucks and wild passes. The Dangerfields scored their last goal of the game early in the third period. Much of the middle part of the second period had the Red Liners crashing the Field zone and throwing pucks at their net. Rebounds were tough to corral by everyone because of the ice conditions. Dr. Nick again came up big on a stop from a penalty-related shoot out. The Liners did manage one more goal of a a pinball-passing play amongst the 4 on-ice players.
The game did end oddly as a rink worker opened the Zamboni doors during play. Discussion ensued between the teams, referee, and the worker. Claiming that a schedule had to be kept, the worker insisted on clearing the surface. The game was ended early with less than 3 minutes left to play. These two teams will meet up again next Friday at Warren Park. It looks to be an interesting rematch.