Semi-Final Game #4

March 28, 2014

Riels 3 vs Hawks 2 in Overtime

FIRST PERIOD

Riels opened the scoring at 4:09 when Royce Nixdorf intercepted a pass inside Hawk territory and blasted a slapshot past Fleury to make it 1-0 Riels unassisted.  Then at 15:55, Russell Trudeau stole the puck in the neutral zone and went in all alone on the breakaway and snapped a low shot past Fleury to make it 2-1 Riels.  Hawks got one back at 18:52 on the power play when David Lafleche jammed the puck into make it 2-1 Riels after the first period.  The Hawks out shot the Riels 12-11 after one.

SECOND PERIOD

Only one goal was scored in the second period and that was at 17:41 when Hawks forward Cole Benediktson found the mesh beating Riels netminder Kyle Vandemosselaer to tie the game at 2-2 after two periods.  Assist went to Riley Court.  The Hawks out played the Riels in the second and outshot the Riels 15-8.

THIRD PERIOD

It was a very tight checking game.  Both net minders were solid until a scary incident happened five minutes into the third when Riels net minder Kyle Vandemosselaer was run down when he came out of his net to clear the puck, he fell awkward, lost his helmet and wasn’t in too good of skate to continue play.  He was helped off the ice and was probably diagnosed with a slight concussion.  It was pretty quiet in the rink when Kyle went down.

There was no penalty called on the play.  Then rookie net minder Ryan Brown came in relief to finish the game.  It seemed to put a spark in the Riels players and staff.  The Riels were skating and winning more battles.  The third period would come to an end dead locked at 2-2. 

OVERTIME

The overtime period would start with Riels all over the Hawks, hard work would pay off when forward Russell Trudeau came down the wing beating Hawks D-man Scott Brauer on the outside.  Brauer had nothing else to do but trip Trudeau and the ref had no choice but to call a penalty.  Riels power play first overall in the league running over 35% all year was put to the test and the Riels would make history to make it to the league final over 28 years.  It was Stanislav Izvekov scoring the winning goal at 6:15 of the 1^st overtime with assists going to Brett Charette.  The Riels would sweep the Hawks four straight to put them in the league final.  Congratulations to the Charleswood Hawks for a great series and year. 

Riels will face the Raiders Hockey Club starting game 1 on Tuesday, April 1^st at 7:30pm at Southdale CC.  Come out and support the Riels to victory!

THREE STARS

     1^st  Star  -  Kyle Vandemosselaer

     2^nd  Star  -  Royce Nixdorf

     3^rd  Star  -  Stanislav Izvekov