Pirates get much needed point in shootout loss
The Goderich Pirates jumped one point ahead of Thedford in the standings receiving a point in a shootout loss in Clinton this past Friday night.
The Pirates jumped out to a early 2-0 lead in Clinton after the first period. Both goals coming off the stick of team leading scorer Matt MacPhee. The first goal was scored on the power play with assist going to Dave Meriam and Sean Burton. The assist for Burton put him three points shy of 1000 for his regualr season career. MacPhee's second goal was scored at even strength with assist going to Kyle Provily and Josh Gaynor. The Radars scored the only goal in the second period to tighten the Pirates lead to only 2-1. In the third period the Pirates scored again on the powerplay when MacPhee netted his third of the game for the natural hat trick. Assist on the powerplay goal went to Josh Gaynor and Aaron Tuffin. The goal seemed to wake the Radars up because most of the play was in the Pirates end of the ice. The Radars took advantage scoring three unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead with over ten minutes to go in the third period. Pirates forward Kyle Provily took what head coach Trevor Bazinet says " a selfish penalty" with 2:49 left in the game than proceeded to complain to the ref and was ejected for verbal abuse of a official. Bazinet said " he deserved what he got and was not pleased by Provily taking such a undisciplined penalty so late in a one goal game". The penalty seemed to wake the Pirates up as Dave Meriam scored shorthanded with 2:14 remaining in the game. Meriam's shorthanded goal was assisted by Aaron Tuffin and Josh Gaynor. Tuffin getting his second assist on the night and Gaynor getting his third assist on the night. The Pirates still had their work cut out for them to finish the game shorthanded and kill Provily's penalty off and send the game into overtime. The Pirates were able to kill the penalty off and get the much needed point to jump ahead of Thedford in the standings. With the guaranteed point the Pirates wanted the two points now to give them that more breathing room in the standings. In overtime The play was fast and furious with end to end action until Pirates defenceman Mike Gillen was called for hooking with 3:48 reamining in overtime. Once again the Pirates penalty killers did a fantastic job killing off the Gillen penalty and sending the game to a shootout. Bazinet said his penalty killers did a amazing job on this night. Clinton has one of the best powerplays in the league and to score a shorthanded goal late in the game than kill the remaininhg time off that penalty and than kill off another penalty in overtime was incredible. One of the Pirates biggest penalty killers on this night besides Meriam's heriocs was netminder Tyler Koot making some big saves when it mattered most. The Radars scored twice in the shootout to take the win while Chris MacKay was the only Pirate able to score in the shootout.
The Pirates travelled to Tillsonburg the next night and it was evident early in the game the bus legs were too much to handle in Tillsonburg. Tyler Koot had a another stellar game in net making 47 saves on 53 shots. Koot was real busy on this night. The game ended in a 6-2 win for the Thunder. The only real bright spot for the Pirates on this night was Sean Burton recording another assist to give him 998 points on his regular season career.
Up next for the Pirates is a three game weekend starting this Friday January 13, 8:30pm at the MRC against the Thedford Dirty Dogs. Head Coach Trevor Bazinet says " to say this game is big is a understatement". The Pirates are currently one point ahead of Thedford in the standings. With a win Friday night that would almost secure us a playoff berth. The Pirates currently have 6 games left in the regualr season and Thedford currently has three games left. A win Friday night would give the Pirates a three point lead for the final playoff spot. Thedford would have to win their last two games of the season to jump ahead of the Pirates and hope the Pirates don't win another game. Bazinet said " Thedford has really picked their game up of late losing some close battles with the top teams in the south so really anything can happen. They are a hard working hockey team that does not quit no matter what the score is. Plus they have a really good goaltender who can win games by himself. We have to be prepared for them on Friday night." The Pirates have yet to win a game at the MRC this year. So they are hoping by letting the fans in for free for this huge game will draw some more fans to the game to support the guys on their quest to make the "AA" playoffs. The Pirates than have two road games when they travel to Tavistock Saturday night for a 8:30pm puck drop. Than on Sunday they a have a 2:30pm matinee affair in Milverton.
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