THE

UPPER VALLEY HOCKEY LEAGUE

Labatt Blues
Lumberjacks
1st
0
2
2rd
3
1
3rd
2
3
FINAL
5
6
Shots
40
39
November 15th, 2022 - 8:20PM
Union Arena - Woodstock, VT
Pre-Game
Recap
Box Score
Discussion
Game ID: 1415

Short-staffed Lumberjacks Bury the Blues

What a matchup we had for week 5, with a rematch of week #1s first game that saw the Lumberjacks double up the Blues 6-3.  Since then, the Blues put on a clinic against the lowly Whalers with an 8-2 throttling, and cooled off a very talented Tuck team 4-3.  The Jacks had the opposite result, getting pounded by Tuck 11-4 and losing a 5-4 nailbiter to the Gamblers.

Vegas had this one completely wrong, predicting a Blues win with an over/under of 8.5 goals.  The Lumberjacks took exception to that  forecast, shortened their bench and brought only their top 7 skaters.  The Jacks took a fluid approach to the game, pouring players off the bench and into whatever position needed to be filled.

The Jacks jumped out to a 1-0 lead just over 2 minutes into the game on goal from the "Baked Potato Line" of Neil "The Real Deal" MacKenzie, Jordy "McBreakaway" McGee and Patrick McDonough.  McNeil chipped the puck out of the zone to McDonough for a 2 on 1.  McDonough and McGee played catch until McGee found McDonough backdoor with an empty net.  The 3 Micks celebrated and talked about getting a Guiness after the game.

It was a relatively even first period with both goaltenders needing to come up big.  The Lumberjack's Ryan "The Liberator" Libbey needed to make 14 saves and the Blues Jon Hall called upon 12 times.

With 4:43 left to play in the first, MacKenzie picked the pocket of a Blues winger in the neutral zone, and quickly found McGee curling out of the zone.  McGee took the pass, turned a defender inside out with a looky-loo under the stick, before cutting back on Hall to tuck the biscuit in the basket.  2-0 Lumberjacks.  The Blues were called upon to kill a Mike Anderson interference call late in the first, and did so with efficiency.

END OF THE FIRST: Lumberjacks 2 - Blues 0.  SHOTS: Lumberjacks 14, Blues 14

What must have been an emotional speech between periods on the Blues bench triggered an onslaught of offense.  The Blues scored the next 3 goals in under 7 minutes of play.  The first came with 12:06 to play in the second when their fearless captain Sam Major took a feed at the point from Colin Clark.  Major hammered the one timer inside the far post on Libbey who was screened in front by his own defender.  An absolute bullet from Major.

Tim McCauliffe tied the game with 9:08 left in the second after picking up a loose puck in his own zone and storming down the near boards.  He let go a quick snapshot from the tops of the circles and about 5 feet from the boards that clearly caught Libbey napping, beating him under the arm.  A goal that Libbey surely will have nightmares about for the rest of his lift.

A Jordy McGee tripping penalty set up the go-ahead goal for the Blues.  It took almost the entirety of the 2 minute penalty, but a Tyler White to Kyle Richards one-timer, left a rebound in front for the big body of TJ Moran to muscle the loose puck in.

Play was a bit sloppy for the next few minutes, with very few shots on goal, but at 2:32 some nice work by the "Baked Potato Line" found Dillan Pierce coming off the bench and ripping a snapshot low blocker side by Hall to tie the game.

END OF THE SECOND: TIED 3-3.   SHOTS: Blues 25 - Jacks 21

The third period was wide open, with 5 goals scored and 27 total shots on goal.  The roles were reversed and the exhausted Lumberjacks either did lines of coke on the bench or their captain Marc "The Narc" Gattie said something amazing.  The Jacks came out, scoring three consecutive goals in 47 seconds, opening the game up.

MacKenzie started the scoring at 13:19, stealing a puck at his own blueline and attacking Sam Major.  MacKenzie lost the puck, Major had an opportunity to make a play but bobbled the puck and fell down like a ton of bricks.  MacKenzie went in all alone on Hall, threw a shake 'n bake at him before beating him short side with a move.  Hall tried to go full Dominik Hasek on him with a barrel role, but to no avail.

23 seconds later, a pair of defensive mistakes led to Jordy McGee stealing a puck in the far corner, cutting through the crease and tucking the puck past Hall.

Another defensive turnover just 24 seconds after that saw McDonough hit Reed "Big Chocolate" Hersey in the slot all alone for the 6o-3 lead.

Just over two minutes later the Blues responded on a great pass from Sam Major to Kyle Richards moving through the slot.  Richards redirected the pass over the pad of Libbey to cut the deficit to 2 goals.  High intensinty and some great saves by both Libbey & Hall carried play for the next 8 plus minutes.  Hall stopped a McDonough breakaway with 3 minutes to play.

The Blues finally cut the lead to one with a well executed stretch play from Tyler White to Kyle Richards at the near blueline.  Richards entered the zone and hit Max Major with a pass.  Major moved the puck to TJ Moran for a short / partial breakaway.  Moran shielded the puck and was able to tuck in his own rebound with 1:38 to play.

The Blues pulled their goaltender and couldn't sustain pressure.  McGee missed a pair of full-ice empty netters that resulted in defensive zone faceoffs.  The Blues had a couple of near scoring opportunites that passed through the crease but nobody was home.  

END OF REGULATION: Lumberjacks 6 - Blues 5.  SAVES: Jon Hall - 33, Ryan Libbey - 35

It was a great, fast, clean game.  Both teams competed and scores some very nice goals.  The Lumberjacks were impressive with only 2 subs on the bench.  Neither goaltender was tagged for a Star of the Game, but both made big saves.  Looking forward to the rematch in a couple weeks.

LEAGUE PICK 'EM
 0%
Labatt Blues
0% 
Lumberjacks
PICKS
THREE STARS

Neil MacKenzie

GOALS: 1
POINTS: 4

Jordan McGee

GOALS: 2
POINTS: 3

Kyle Richards

GOALS: 1
POINTS: 3

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