With hangovers abound, a shorter Red Liners benched faced one of their rivals, the Beer Bistro, in an inter-holiday matchup. Having failed to beat the Beer Bistro in their previous matchups, the Liners planned to come out quick and hard with a full offensive bench. However, the equally tough Bistro defense proved too much for the Liners for most of the game.
The first period was all Beer Bistro as they notched their goals at the start and ends of the period. Their defense rifled slapshots just inside the blue line as well as picking up loose pucks in the slots for scores. The few offensive chances that the Liners had were few and short-lived.
Things changes slightly in the second period. The Bistro would score within the first minute to take a three
goal lead of an orphaned puck in the neutral zone. but Davy offered a superhuman effort to grab the Liners' first goal. Mixy and Teddy were trying to corral a puck in the slot which popped out near the blue line. After picking up the puck, Davy skated his way to the near circle while beng harassed by the Bistro defense. Though the puck was bobbling, Davy fired a backhand shot past the left shoulder of the Bistro
netminder. The opponents returned the favor about a minute later to regain a three-goal lead.
Offensive troubles continued into the third period. Queen Steph along
with Scuba Joe were beginning to get exhausted from the constant backchecking from cal
led-off icing. Both teams were going back and forth with offensive attacks and defensive standoffs. The Liners tried to match the physical play of the Bistro. B-hole was called for high sticking while Sobo bodychecked an opponent along the boards. Both penalties were successfully killed. In the waning minutes, something began to click with the offense. Mixy, Teddy, and Davy pinballed the puck around which somehow made its way just inside the far post. With 35 seconds left to play, The Druck, and Doc swarmed the front of the Bistro net and The Murph fired a wrist shot at the net. A Bistro defensemen tried to backhand tip the puck but ended up firing it into his own net. The Liners did pull the goalie with the remaining 30 seconds but could not organize an attack on the Bistro net.
While the final score was close, the game play was quite lopsided. A lack of sustained offensive attack from passing prematurely and minimal forechecking kept the scoring low. The Bistro's quick forwards and lagging Liners' backchecking kept their defense on their toes and exhausted them out. The Liners welcome the needed two week break before returning for more matchups against a below 500 teams. In fact, only their matchup against the currently first-placed Immortals will be against a team above 500 for their next 6 games. Hopefully, the boys and girls in red will creep higher in the standings with these favorable matchups.