Wednesday 13th February 2008
With the Whalers coming off
a long gap since their last match, a 4 – 3 victory against
the Ravens, we came into this match prepared and motivated
as they heard that the Ravens wanted revenge for the defeat
they picked up against us.
The first period started motivated and the Whalers got off
to a good start, they didn’t dominate the play but were
clearly in control for the first few minutes, opportunities
came at both ends with some good saves being made by both
keepers, then the breakthrough goal came just over 5
minutes into the game as the puck trickled across the line.
Later in the first period, pressure from both sides brought
yet more shots on goal at both ends and they were all
matched by the keepers until the Whalers got a breakaway
pass and the goal.
With the second period underway the Ravens stepped up their
play as they put more pressure on the Whalers team, but the
Whalers were able to repel the pressure with good saves by
“Iggy”, but of course the Ravens net minder was equal to
the shots the Whalers put on goal until Niall McEvoy broke
in of the left wing around the defenseman and collided with
the net minder, with the puck bouncing free it was a Whaler
who reacted quickest to make it 3 0 Whalers.
On this play though Ravens net minder Micael injured his
left elbow, he went down and held it while team mates and
referees helped him up and cope with the pain, with only a
minute or so left in the period he waited before being seen
to by the medic, he got an ice pack on it and he played on.
This was until in the third period after only a couple of
minutes he was hit in the head accidentally by a Whalers’
knee in a 50/50 opportunity and this got tempers rising. He
stood up and said he could play on, but before this
happened Neil Black insisted that he wasn’t alright to the
linesman while being pushed back, and while going to set
the face off up Neil took a quick look and saw that he
wasn’t ok, pointed it out to the referee and linesman and
rushed to help him, moments later he fainted. He was
stretchered off the ice and the period was paused while the
Ravens padded up a new keeper. Micael was brought to
hospital during the third period and I believe was kept in
over night to be monitored.
The third period continued and the pressure was raised even
more as the Ravens pushed to put the puck past Riley, with
opportunities coming regularly but Riley kept them at bay.
The period was running down and the Whalers broke out from
the defensive zone and came in 3 on 3 with the Ravens
defence and with a beautiful drop pass got into the slot
and with the back-up keeper going down early the puck was
lifted up and over to make it 4 0. This annoyed a few of
the Ravens but they didn’t give up, within the last minute
they got an offensive face off and they had a shot that got
kicked away by Riley, just before scrambling to make a few
more big saves, and in the dying seconds he made a big
save, which gave up a rebound but Captain Gary Harvey
coming in behind Riley to make the stop on the line and
kill of the rest of the game. This gave the Whalers their
first clean sheet of the league. The shutout was spilt by
Riley and Iggy (40 and 20 minutes respectively).
On behalf of the Whalers team I would like to wish the
Ravens net minder, Micael, all the best for a quick
recovery. Also to thank the Ravens for a great game, and
congratulate Neil Black on his quickness in helping out the
Ravens keeper.
Tonight’s pictures were taken by Adele Taylor.
My personal Man of the Match for the Whalers, is a hard
choice as Gary made the line clearance, Bart got a couple
of goals (again) and Neil helped their keeper. So to make a
tough decision easy I’m giving it to the three of them.
Report by Graeme Bell
