With their tough, one-goal, loss last week, the Heartland Red Liners regrouped for an early Sunday afternoon game against one of the top teams in the league last season, the Blades of Steel. Attendance for these early games (ie. before 9pm at night) can be a crapshoot as unexpected daytime events can get in the way of a player arriving at the rink. The Liners were able to suit up a strong set of 13 skaters. The game would go back and forth but the guys in red would come out on top by a last minute goal from Sam I Am.
The first period excitement began with a roughing penalty on Big Ben only ninety seconds into the period. However, the Blades were not able to capitalize on the man advantage but they would be the first team to score a goal minutes later. However, Mutt would tie it up just two minutes later. Marooney’s slapshot from the near point rebounded to a waiting Mutt near the opposite circle. He reflexively slammed in the puck into the empty net. Unfortunately the Blades tied it up a mere two minutes later and then take the lead about six minutes later. Before the period was over, Sam I am would go on the breakaway and score the first of his three goals which tied up the score at two a piece.
The Blades would wrestle the lead back within less than a minute into the second period and extend that lead by two goals with their fourth goal half way through the period. But theLiners fought back with an improbable shorthanded goal during Jake’s tripping penalty. Marooney picked up the face off pass from Kodi and backhanded it slowly through the traffic and past the unsuspected Blade goalie. Sam am I would again repeat his last minute period scoring off another breakaway from Morty’s pass and dekeing the Blade goalie.
Both teams were now playing for keeps in the third period. It would be the Red Liners who’d strike first with a scramble goal in front of the Blade goal. A loose puck had all the Liner forwards trying to poke it into the net. Eventualy, Morty would be awarded the goal. The lead wouldn’t stand as the Blades tied it up with five minutes left in the game after an uncovered Blade skater in the slot popped in an easy pass past Rocket, the Liners’ goalie, from behind the net. The expected dejected response by the Liners did not materialized. The team rallied around each other and came out strong as they tried to avoid the shoot out. It looked all but inevitable until 30 seconds left in the game when, again, Sam I Am found a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated alone at the Blade net. He again deked the goalie and slipped the puck into the back of the net, causing the angry Blade goalie to slam his stick against the ice. A fortified group of five skates walled off the Liner net and ran out the clock.
With the win, the Red Liners remain in first place in the Western Conference (tied with Jokerit but beat them in head-to-head competition). They are in a position that they have never been in before. The guys and gal in red hope to remain competitive throughout the short season. Their next game is August 14 at 10:50pm against the Polar Vortex.