There
was a good sized crowd on hand for last night's game, almost double what had been
expected and the fans were treated to some excellent hockey from both teams. The
Ramblers had taken an early lead in the game and at mid way through the second held
a comfortable 5 - 3 situation. Nipawin has a number of their leading players off
with injuries including Sunday night's awesome goalie Curtis Parkinson. Parkinson
pulled a groin muscle on one of the first plays of the Monday night game but said
he 
expects
to be back in net this coming Sunday night. Other injuries include the excellent
goal scorer Graham Comfort who is out of the Nipawin line up for the rest of the
season.With Parkinson unable to play and Kevin Lockwood unavailable Nipawin had a Bantam goalie in net last night who can not but be proud of the excellent showing he had.
Early in the game Nipawin's Curtis Wanamaker and Jeff Farber were unable to reach an understanding and after some blows were exchanged both retired from the game. With Tisdale's bench full the absence of Jeff was not a
s
erious set back but
Nipawin was missing people and losing a defenseman was a definite setback. Nipawin
continued its successful tactic of simply knocking all forwards down as you can see
in the picture on the left where Murray Harrower eliminates a forward but with three
full lines against Nipawin's two lines of defense there was just not enough Murray
Harrower to go around. At the same time Tisdale stuck to its standard game plan
and that is to skate, skate and skate some more. Their defense, lead by Brad Kirkland,
Pete McAvoy, Luc Simoneau, Jim Fafonoff, Brad Farber and Lee Morgan just kept moving
that puck up the ice and into the Nipawin zone often carrying it themselves or getting
those crucial passes onto
the forward's
sticks. The good natured Lee Morgan (above right) skating under full power and carrying
the puck drove into the side of his own goal in what should have been a collision
that had to have hurt. But Lee (7 right) was up and was able to play the rest of
the game as though nothing had happened.Marc Rio was in net for Wednesday night's game and Nipawin's fast forwards put him to the test steadily throughout the game. The one sided score was not reflected in the play, as Nipawin was in the game from beginning to end.
On Monday
night the Ramblers with two players out of the line up shuffled their lines a bit
and the result has made life difficult for Nipawin's defenseman. Up until then the
Ramblers had teamed up veterans and rookies to produce balanced lines with diggers
and sharp shooters on each line. Monday night and last night, the Whiz kids, Jeremy
Markwart, Ryan Turcotte and Jordan Spagrud worked together and just to make matters
worse for Nipawin, at times the Ramblers would play this ultra fast line for less
then a minute, pull them off the ice, and then a minute later, they would be back,
swarming over the Nipawin zone. The second line change was to team Chad Olson and Scott Kearns with Scott Homstol. Murray Harrow, who had up til this point only had to get Homstol when he was on the ice was faced with having to cover three similar players and to make matters worse for him, all three will shoot from close in or just over the blue line. This line can be seen in the picture above and below. The picture below shows them scoring goal number eight from a point shot and Scott Kearns right on the doorstep.
Neil
Elmslie, Shane Magnus and Al Leblanc made up the other line and we can expect to
see this winning combination on the ice for the rest of the series and perhaps beyond
should the Ramblers march on into the Finals.This unusual picture on the right is with Spagrud on one knee, Turcotte just in front of the goalie and Jeremy picking himself up off the ice in the midst of the Nipawin rabble. Throughout the season we have seen the Ramblers using the orbital play when they get into the opposition's zone and are allowed to skate. The picture above is what happens when the opposition defense stops this play by downing two of the forwards but if they don't the picture below shows what can happen.
In an orbital play the puck carrier keeps on the move either attempting to get a shot on net or transfer the puck to another orbiting forward. The concept of wing and centre is completely without meaning in this formation as you can see Olson (44) is heading around to follow the puck carrier and in the foreground Neil Elmslie is setting off to pursue Olson. This flexible play can route the orbit behind the goal, include defenseman and make the defending goalie dizzy. Mike Weatherald (Nipawin 7) is directing his attention to the puck carrier as are the other two defenders, but he should be turning his attention to the nearest orbiting player and that is Elmslie. Failure to check in a situation like this means the Ramblers will certainly score.
