Kincardine Hair Connection Atom LL1 travelled to Normanby on Monday, 22Feb2010 through snow and icy roads. Seven skaters made the trip and Ariel, wearing #30, stepped in to play goalie with Tyler being out with a cold. It was looking like this might be a long trip to get beaten badly.
Martin (#2) and Michael (#13) left their familiar forward positions to fill in on defense with Brendan (#10) due to Ariel (#11) filling in at goal. That left Darian (#3), Payton (#8), Isaac (#9) and Ryan (#16) up front, with Michael occasionally spelling off a forward and the defensive pair of Brendan and Martin triple shifting.
Kincardine played hard for the first four minutes matching chances with Normanby. Ariel (#30) made some outstanding saves early, which gave Kincardine some confidence. Normanby then scored and scored again with a minute and a half left in the first period. It looked as though the wheels had fallen off with the period ending 0-2.
Kincardine regrouped at the end of the first, putting up a great effort. Martin (#2) and Michael (#13) aggressively attacking the puck carrier and Brendan (#10) playing the role of stay-at-home defenseman perfectly. Darian (#3) and Payton (#8) provided the offensive drive with Ryan (#16) getting the puck up ice and helping out the defense. Isaac (#9) provided solid play along the boards in both ends of the rink. Half way through the second period Darian (#3) took the puck up the ice and fired it from fifteen feet out top shelf glove side. A minute and a half later, Brendan (#10) cleared the puck up the boards and Darian (#3) picked it up, crossed the blue-line and drove a shot low through the five-hole. The game was now tied! Normanby reasserted their lead two minutes later. A minute later, Payton (#8) carried the puck up the ice and dished off to Darian (#3) who circled the net trying for a wrap-around. The goalie was there for the save, but Darian picked up the rebound and roofed it to tie the game at three. With 17 seconds left in the period Darian let a hard shot go that rattled off the goal post. The second period ended with Kincardine back in contention, tied at three.
The third period started with Normanby once again establishing the lead 30 seconds into the period. Kincardine responded when Darian carried the puck down the right wing and, cutting into the middle with a defenseman draped all over him, still managed to get a shot off from the slot that found its mark. Ten seconds later, Ryan (#16) passed the puck up the middle to Darian (#3) who crossed the blue-line and let another shot fly into the top shelf - Kincardine took the lead 5-4! The next five minutes saw the play see-saw up and down the ice. Ariel (#30) made several key saves and fought hard to cover up rebounds. Normanby then tied up the game, but Kincardine wasn’t through yet. Darian (#3) pushed the puck forward off the face-off, crossed the blue-line and found the corner of the net with a low drive to regain the lead 8 seconds later. Another three minutes of nail biting action went by before Normanby once again tied the game. With four minutes left in the game, Ryan (#16) dug the puck off the boards and got it to Darian (#3) who fired it from the corner high off the goalies mask and into the net. Kincardine was ahead 7-6, but could not hang on as fatigue set in. Normanby managed to score another three goals to win the game 7-9 in a hard fought battle. Congratulations to the all the Kincardine players for an outstanding effort.