The last of the four Red Liners teams, the Johnny’s squad, met up with the mid-ranked DVDA for a late Thursday night game. Such late night games are always a bit of a crapshoot as attendance can make a big difference. They only suited ten skaters which would end up being one too little later in the game. While the Liners jumped to a fast start, they collapsed in the second period and allowed DVDA to take the lead that would not be relinquished.
A sign of things to come was a quick and early offensive rush by the DVDA that almost resulted in a goal (saved by a post). Soon afterwards, Jeff would score the first goal off a blue line wrist shot that was initially blocked but then dribbled under the DVDA goalie. Toe would score two back to back goals (slipping rebounds just past the DVDA netminder) to increase the Red Liner lead to three. But DVDA would score their first goal off an offensive blue line turnover and subsequent breakaway with a few minutes left in the period.
The Liners regained the momentum by scoring early in the second period by Easy E’s deflection of Toe’s cross slot pass. But then DVDA would make it rain on the Liners. They scored five unanswered goals, 3 from breakaways and 2 from an uncovered shooter. Rumor has it that as the DVDA stepped up the physical play of their game, the Liners backed down. Five goals were scored in six minutes. The momentum was lost. Easy E was also ejected due to back talking to the refs. This left them with only nine skaters.
The final goal for DVDA was off a power play in the middle of the third period. Baby would score a last second goal off a loose puck behind the net which he slipped just inside the post. The rest of the game remained lackluster on both sides.
The scoreboard only showed a two goal difference but it should have been twenty goals. The early lead vanished as breakdown after breakdown appeared. DVDA would pressure the Liners to quickly dump pucks and make blind or off-target passes that resulted in little offensive threat. On the flip side, the Liners failed to pressure DVDA back when they charged into the offensive zone. One DVDA players scored the first 5 goals. The Liners allowed the DVD to catch passes unhindered, skate at their Liner net with little resistance, and failed to get pucks out of the zone & to their forwards. Finally, their positional play collapsed as time went on.
With the loss, Uncle Puck or the Pirates can leap up to first place. The Liners hope to regroup and come out strong and confident against the Nutty Squirrels, next Thursday, Aug 7 at 9:50pm.