Kincardine LL2 hosted Durham on 11Mar2008 for a week night game. Memories of the 5-0 drubbing in Durham a week earlier were still fresh.
Kincardine came out flying in the first period. Durham responded in kind. The result was a fast paced end to end period ending in a scoreless tie. At the 5 minute mark, Kincardine had their best chance of the period when Mackenzie's (#30) aggressive forechecking turned the puck over in the Durham zone. Hogan (#11) picked up the puck in the slot and was stopped with a quick glove hand by the Durham goalie.
The second period continued where the first left off with end to end hockey. Kincardine broke the scoreless draw when Virat (#4) carried the puck down the right wing and took a long shot at net. Both Ryan (#16) and the Rocket (#2) headed to the net. Ryan got the rebound over to the side of the net where the Rocket buried it. Three minutes later, Durham stormed back on a 2 on 1, with a shot that went in high on the glove side to even the score. This seemed to unsettle Kincardine who remained a bit disorganized. Two minutes later, Durham scored another in a goal mouth scramble in which Alex (#1) made 3 saves and appeared to have covered the puck, but it was poked in from underneath his glove before the whistle went. Kincardine then woke back up and attacked the Durham net. Hogan (#11) carried the puck from the Kincardine blueline into the Durham zone, cut over into the slot and fired a low shot at the net. Mackenzie (#30) was once again going hard to the net and one timed the rebound. The Durham goalie made a nice save, but the rebound went back to Hogan who had also headed for the net and he flipped it over the sprawling Durham goalie to tie the game once again with a minute to go in the period. Unfortunately with the seconds ticking off the clock, Kincardine lost their focus and allowed Durham to take the lead following a bad clearing attempt at the Kincardine blueline. The score after two periods was 3-2 in favour of Durham.
The third period kept up the relentless pace. As the Kincardine forwards tired, more pressure was put on Kincardine's terrific trio on defence. Chris (#15) continued to rush the puck and make pin-point passes to the forwards. Brendan's (#10) solid stick and good positional play allowed him to break up three two on ones. Alex's (#17) excellent positioning in front of the net put him in great position to clear several rebounds after great saves by Alex (#1). Durham began to put more pressure on Kincardine in their end. With just over 4 minutes left, Durham cashed in on a power play after Alex (#1) made a brilliant toe save with the rebound going right onto a Durham forwards stick at the side of the net. Kincardine then found another gear and put the pressure on Durham. Kincardine's best chance came when Hogan (#11) centred a pass to Michael (#16) in the slot. Michael's low shot to the stick side was kicked out by the Durham goalie. Kincardine pulled their goalie with 1:40 remaining and kept the pressure on Durham but could not penetrate the defensive wall. The final score was 2-4 for Durham in a very fast and entertaining game.