The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page - November 11, 2008
POSSE TAKE TOP TEAM INTO OVERTIME
When the number one team in the league comes to town, people take notice and November 8th was no exception when Valley First Princeton Posse hosted Nelson Leafs.
Both teams had come off of successful wins on the road the previous night (Princeton 4-2 in Summerland; Nelson 2-1 in Kamloops) and were set for an incredible match.
Aside from some fancy stick work by the home team, the most impressive part of the game was the amazing goaltending of Princeton's Michael Garteig who snatched flying pucks in mid-air, prevented rebounds and instinctively stopped blocked shots and shots fired into traffic. Garteig's spidey senses must have been tingling through the entire game based on his lightning fast moves.
Unfortunately, the rest of the team appeared disoriented at times, possibly due to the fact that they were wearing their brand new home jerseys for the first time this season.
There were some great set-ups, some fancy drop passes behind and through legs, plenty of passes sent off boards, but for some reason, the plays did not gel well for Princeton.
Regardless, they did light up the scoreboard first at 12:34 with a goal by Kyle L'Arrivee, assisted by Kieran Friesen.
Princeton's second goal came from a mistake made by Nelson goalie Peter Alexander who tried to pass the puck to one of his teammates just in front of the goal crease when Princeton's Nick Cecconi zipped in, took the puck off the goalie's stick and flipped it high and into the net. Kyle L'Arrivee received an assist on the short-handed goal.
Nelson fired back in the second period scoring their first goal of the contest at 18:36 on the power play.
Princeton responded with a power play goal of their own at 14:41 (Matt Chomyc from Spencer Brooks and Kyle L'Arrivee).
Nelson bounced back scoring at 13:16.
Play by this time was back and forth with shots fired, and misfired by both teams.
Princeton widened their lead at 7:04 (Derrick DeLisser from Spencer Brooks) but Nelson was not done and scored two quick power play goals at 5:49 and 4:32 to tie the game at 4-all. In total, six goals were scored in the second period and although the stats sheet says differently, neither team was able to over power the other.
In the third period, Princeton broke the tie at 14:22 (Nick Cecconi from Brody Brewster) and Nelson responded at 11:41 to bring the score to 5-all.
The final 9-minutes of the game was still the same as the rest of the game, drop passes, long shots and missed chances on both ends of the rink, which forced an overtime period.
In the extra five-minute frame, neither team was able to put it together enough to score the winning goal and as it was shaping up to head into a shoot-out to decide the winner, Nelson's Kai Bauman got enough of his stick on the puck while Princeton's Michael Garteig's spidey senses were reacting to the original shot on goal to break the tie with only .3 of a second left.
The home team deserves credit for pushing the top team in the league into an overtime game, and for keeping cool heads throughout the match. Princeton collected only eight penalties (all minors) totaling 16-minutes with Nelson adding only six minors worth 12-minutes to their team total.
Final score: Nelson 6, Princeton 5 OT. Shots on goal: both teams tied at 65.
