S51 Game of the Week - Episode 2

[Phil 5,119]

Game 49: Legion vs. Express

 

Final Score: 0 - 4

 

Cologne headed to the Ricoh Center in Toronto to face the indomitable Legion, who started off the season 9-0, much to the surprise of the 1 free agent @Higgins who left to head out west to Calgary, where all the oil money is. Cologne also had an unexpectedly good start to the season, with a record of 6-3 and never thought the result would shape out this way.

 

The express dominated the first period, outshooting the Legion 11-4, but Clegane @Victor stood tall in net, shutting out the Express for a fourth consecutive period.  It was an oddly clean affair as well, as not one player took a penalty. The Express went into the break with momentum on their side.

 

It took just under a minute for the Express to strike in the second. Phil Hamilton collected the puck behind his net and blazed a pass straight onto the tape of Lincoln @brovy, who darted across the blue line and found a wide open Skovgaard @Tim streaking into the crease and lifted the puck over Clegane's shoulder for the first goal of the match. 30 seconds later, Parechkin @DollarAndADream took a stupid penalty, allowing for the top line powerplay to dominate. Jarvi  @gregreg fed the puck over the P. Hamilton, who took a slap shot that was barely saved by Clegane but Skovgaard found the rebound first and stuffed it home to double the advantage! 30 seconds after that, Parechkin took another stupid penalty and the Express found themselves up a man again. This time it was Kyanon  @tfong and Hamilton passing the puck at the top of the blue line to each other, before Hamilton wired a shot towards the target, which was marvelously redirected by Lincoln through Clegane's five-hole to give the Express a 3-0 lead. within 3 and a half minutes of the seconds period. But Cologne was not finished then. Parachekin, late in the period got a double minor which Cologne, almost laughingly, decided to punish him, this time with Jarvi and Lincoln connecting before Kyanon cannoned it in to make it a 4-0 game. 

 

The third period was rather ugly. Toronto, knowing they'd lost the game, resorted to dirty tactics. A general fight broke out 8 minutes in involving the Lincoln, Skovgaard, and P. Hamilton, and Hyvarinen TOR LW2, and TOR RW1. Skovgaard was wrongly ejected from the game for apparently instigating it, but I think the refs where just showing some pity for the home fans. 

 

Toronto got a consolation goal, however still got outshot in that period, 10-8. Zhumbayev @fever95 played very well, stopping 19 of the 20 shots while the Express offense managed a whopping 40 on Clegane, their former FA target. In the last episode I said revenge was sweet and nothing says "you should have signed here" better than piling 4 goals past the netminder in front of his home fans. The Express are the surprise of this season so far and things seem to be going well for the apparently-not-so disheveled team

 

3 Stars

1 - Tom Lincoln (COL)
2 - Artom Zhumbayev (COL)
3 - Biggu Kyanon (COL)

Game Link

Edited September 29, 2016 by Phil

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

Hey, those were smart penalties! They were stupid penalty kills!