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What can be said about this first round-robin game --- it was supposed to be our easiest game against a young team who we beat 12-5 recently, and who only had 1 win all season, and that was against a brutal team that doesn't even belong in the A-Division ---- but after this game, it's our Flyers who looked like we didn't belong in the A-Division....

We scored on the very first shift when Terry took a great shot from near center on a pass from Billy -- maybe that early goal made us think we were going to walk all over these guys again......not so much as it turned out, but we did score again about 5 minutes later when Billy intercepted a pass near half and fired home a nice shot.....but the pesky Nordiques got that one back 2 mins. later when a loose ball was quickly shot through Yeates' pads 5-hole ---- so the score was only 2-1 after 1 period.....

About 2 mins. into the 2nd period, the Nords tied it up on a similar goal, but on the next shift, Rich was able to bang in a shot from Fynn off the back wall.....but a couple of mins. later, the Nordiques tied it up again on a 2-on-1 with a man left wide open for the easy tap in.....no goals were scored for the next 15 mins as Yeates made some solid saves in our end, and their goalie made some too --- but I don't know if I've ever seen our team miss the net so often in a game -- it was uncanny how many Flyers shot the ball off target....having our sharp-shooter Scatch there surely would have helped but he was a last-minute scratch......so 3-3 after 2 periods....

No scoring again for the first 10 minutes of the 3rd period as we again showed a knack for blowing opportunities by completely missing the net......with about half a period left, the Nords got a fluky goal from behind the goal-line.....but Terry tied it up again for us after taking a pass from Patty, TO made an amazing move around their D-man then roofed a perfect wrist shot over their sprawling goalie......then with about 6 mins left, the Nordiques took the lead when a rebound went right to another completely uncovered Nord.....3 mins later, they would score again on a long shot that somehow got through a bunch of traffic.....about 30 seconds later, Prevost gave us a little life on a goal with another nice assist from Fynn making it 6-5 for them with about 2:30 left to play......but with our net empty desperately trying to salvage at least a tie to force OT, they scored to make the final 7-5.....

A crushing loss for our team which could kill our chances of getting to the 'gold-medal' game for at least a chance at some trophy ---- but maybe that is fitting of our season because we certainly didn't play like an elite team this season, and losing to this juvenile team only illustrates the point even more.....that said --- we do have an opportunity here ---- we get to face the 2 best teams in our playoffs in our next 2 games, so we have a chance to not let them get perfect 3W-0L records ---- so maybe we can show a little pride (and talent) in trying to upset the Road Apples and the Black Eagles....then, who knows, maybe a 2W-1L record will be good enough if we knock one or both of them down to the same record....

Stats for the game: Terry 2G.....Billy 1G, 1A.....Rich 1G.....Fynn 2A......Patty 1A....Prevost 1G......

Flyers 3 Stars as voted by our teammates:

---- #1 ---- this was the closest votes we've ever had for all 3 stars with only 1 vote separating each spot --- and #1 goes to Prevost who notched 1 goal and who made all kinds of wicked moves to create chances with linemate Colin.....

---- #2 ---- goes to Terry for his 2 goals, including the 2nd one which may have been the highlight goal of the season.....and Terry also tried as hard as anyone to mount some more offence that he and our team are capable of.....

---- #3 ---- goes to D-man Billy for his 1G and 1A and he also played a solid game in our end and had quite a few dangerous chances that wouldn't go in for him.....

Honourable mention officially goes to converted D-man Fynn who even got a 1st-star vote from Prevs who said "Best game I've seen him play!"as Patrick was solid and smart in our end, and he picked up 2 assists with his clever passes and even more clever shots on net as he's one of the few who understands that it's smarter to take off a little velocity and just get the freaking ball actually on net......also getting star votes were Rich, Patty, Colin, Yeates and Bernie.....

Next week we play at 7:00pm against the very tough (but not dirty!) Road Apples against whom we just played a classic game last week --- they are 10 times better than the Nordiques, so if we play anything like we did this week, we'll get crushed --- but I suspect we'll show some pride and seek redemption in what will surely be another epic battle against well-respected enemies.....if we play like we can, we can make sure the best they can do is win 2 of their 3 round-robin games.....