With the 4-0 loss firmly in the back of their mind, the Liners tried to fortify their offense and defense for this matchup. Things looked good early on but late game stumbles allowed the Geese to come honking back into the game and eventually tie it. Neither team could slip the puck past the other netminder during the shoot out. But teams ended up with the tie.
The scoring got off early starting from a breakaway by Jesse. His shot of net bounced into an empty slot where a sliding Sobo fired a slapshot just inside the near post. For the rest of the period, the Liners’ Goalie, AKA the Conductor, made several spectacular saves to keep the Geese off the board.
The scoring continued for the Liners off Queen Anne’s slapshot from the point as MK screened the goalie. But the Geese would get on the boards minutes later on an odd man rush at the Liners’ goalie. Toto would push the lead back up to two goals during a penalty kill. He deked the Goose Island goalie on a breakaway from a pass from Jesse. However, the Islanders would find the back of the net in the closing seconds of that same powerplay. Da’ Derek weaved his way through the Islands’ D to score the period final goal after deking their goalie.
With their opponents hot on their heels, the guys and gal in red continued their offensive push even though they had a two goal lead. Unfortunately, the Geese got a few breaks and scored early in the third period and moved within a goal of the Liners. Toto would get the goal spread back up to two goals on a wrister while Jesse screened the goaltender. In the remaining half of the period, the Liners’ defense tried to clamp down on the shots on net. They had some trouble clearing the puck out of the zone. In the end, the Geese would score two goals and tie up the score. In the 3 man shoot out, neither side could muster up one goal. Liners shooters were Derek, B-hole, and Queen Anne.
While the win still eludes the Liners when playing against Goose Island, the outcome was better than the previous matchups. Management hopes to smooth out the rough edges of offense and defense before the next game. The offense will try to have more organized and sustained breakouts from their defensive zone. The defense will try to secure the puck and hit it out of the zone better. Hopefully, this would minimize the prolong shifts deep in the defensive zone. Their next game is on Sunday, Feb 16th at 10:45pm against Blacksheep.