The Final - Canterbury Red Devils v Botany Swarm
The Final - Saturday 30th August, Christchurch Final Team 1 2 3 OT T Canterbury Red Devils 0 2 0 0 2 Botany Swarm 1 0 1 1 3
The capacity crowd at the Alpine Ice Sports Centre in Christchurch was treated to one of the greatest games of ice hockey in New Zealand…. ever, on Saturday night.
In a game fitting of the season finale, the Botany Swarm edged out the Canterbury Red Devils 3-2 in overtime to win back to back NZIHL titles.
During the two regular season meetings between the teams both games finished in 4-4 ties. However, at the conclusion of the regular season the Devils managed to finish with one more point and hence the final was played on their home ice for the second straight season.
From the outset it was obvious that this encounter was going to be unlike last year when the Swarm swept away the Red Devils 7-0 in the final. During the first period the Red Devils controlled the run of play piling 18 shots on the Swarm goal compared to the Swarm only managing 16. However the Swarm snatched early momentum scoring first through Lyle Idoine, with five and half minutes left.
The second period belonged to the Red Devils. First they managed to equalise early, one and half minutes into the period through their Hungarian import Janos Kaszala. 7 minutes later, while short handed the Devils managed to take the lead 2-1 again through Kaszala. The Devils continued to pound Swarm goalie, Zak Nothling who had an outstanding game, out shooting the Swarm 18-12.
In the 3rd period the Swarm threw everything forward but Red Devil’s goalie Evan Miller matched Nothling’s heroic ability and pulled off some unbelievable saves to keep the Devils in the lead. With a minute and a half remaining, in a last ditch attempt to draw level the Swarm pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. The move paid off and with just with 43 seconds to go, Mitchell Oak got the puck at the blue line and hammered it into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. Thus forcing a 10 minute sudden death overtime.
During the overtime the Red Devil’s could only manage 2 more shots to the Swarm’s 8. But once again the both goalies were determined not to let the puck through. The game seemed to be heading towards a penalty shoot out until with a minute and a half remaining Ian Wannamaker picked up a loose rebound and waited until Miller had over committed to lift the puck into the goal for a dramatic win!
All in all it was a very fast and exciting game that went right down to the wire with the home crowd unable to lift their team to a win. The Swarm’s tactic of rolling 3 lines for most of the game compared to the Red Devil’s use of mainly 2 lines paid off in the end as the Swarm seemed to have a lot more gas left in tank during the 3rd and OT periods.
For photos Click Here http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzihf/sets/72157607029664600/
| Scoring Summary | ||||
1st Period Scoring | Team | Goal Scorer | Assit | Assit |
5:33 | BSW | Lyle Idoine | Adam Carlzon | |
2nd Period Scoring | ||||
18:25 | CRD | Janos Kaszala | Paris Heyd | Christopher Eaden |
11:35 | CRD | Janos Kaszala (SH) | Paris Heyd | |
3rd Period Scoring | ||||
0:43 | BSW | Mitchell Oak | Richard Idoine | Jordan Challis |
OT Scoring | ||||
0:57 | BSW | Ian Wannamaker (PP) | Mitchell Oak | Richard Idoine |
Shots: Canterbury Red Devils 51, Botany Swarm 51
CRD - Canterbury Red Devils
BSW- Botany Swarm
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