Eagles Take Game 1 on Davies OT Winner

Article by I. Schoonderbeek/Media by Shannon Nagle Photography & L. Glazier

It was probably not the overall performance the Clarington Eagles’ coaching staff was looking for in game one of the Eastern Conference final.

After more than a week of inaction, the Eagles didn’t exactly bring their ‘A’ game to Garnet B. Rickard Recreation Complex Thursday night. But the club battled through, found a little puck luck, and persevered in a 3-2 overtime victory to draw first blood in what should be a gruelling series against the Napanee Raiders.

The Eagles thought they had gotten on the scoreboard just 1:30 into the first period. Defenseman Ryan Hall carried the puck wide down the right wing on the play before cutting around a defender and driving across the front of the crease. Hall buried a backhand shot past Raiders’ starter Logan Vale, but the officials determined the goalkeeper had intentionally knocked the net off prior to the puck crossing the goal line.

Instead of an early 1-0 lead, the Eagles went to the powerplay. It quickly turned into a long 2-man advantage after another Napanee penalty just 20 seconds in. But the Raiders’ defenders held the Clarington shooters to the outside to keep the game scoreless.

Napanee would have their own five-on-three advantage a short time later, which was turned away effectively by the Eagles’ penalty killers.

It would take until almost the halfway point of the second period before Napanee eventually opened the scoring in the tight-checking contest. Late in a Raiders’ powerplay opportunity, a pass from the point found Napanee skater back door. The Eagles argued the puck had been kicked in on the play, but the officiating crew was having none of it, lining the teams up to face off at centre ice.

Mitch Davies drew the Eagles even five minutes later. With the Eagles once again on the penalty kill, Davies chipped the puck off the boards and stepped around a Napanee defender to create a shorthanded breakaway. The captain elected to shoot five-hole to knot the score up at 1-1.

The Raiders jumped ahead again in the last minute of the second. On an odd-man rush, the Clarington defenders gave the puck carrier a little too much space on the offensive zone entry. The extra space allowed him to walk into the faceoff circle before beating Eagles starter Oliver Webster.

It never feels good to surrender a goal in the dying seconds of a period in a tight game, especially going into the third period. The Eagles skaters undoubtedly heard about it in the dressing room during the intermission. Whatever was said between periods, the Eagles came out flying in the third. They had a noticeably higher energy level than in the opening two frames.

That energy translated to an early powerplay opportunity. Napanee once again did an effective job limiting the Clarington chances. However, the Eagles caught a fortunate break as the penalty wound down.

In the dying seconds of the man advantage with his teammates heading to the bench on a line change, Hall attempted to fire the puck into the Napanee zone off the glass. Perhaps it was karma for his first-period goal being called back…as Vale left the net in anticipation of cutting off the dump-in behind the goal, the puck hit a stanchion along the glass and deflected into the vacated net to tie the game back up at 2-2.

The Eagles buzzed the Napanee end for much of the remaining 18 minutes of regulation play but could not cash in on a scoring chance, sending them to overtime for the first time this post-season.

12:28 into the extra frame, it was once again Mitch Davies making things happen. Davies outhustled a Raiders defender, creating a two-on-one rush with Trent Gaylor. Davies dished a clean pass to Gaylor in the slot who was stopped on the play. But Davies went straight to the net after making the pass and was there on the doorstep to backhand home the game-winner.

Mitch Davies scores the overtime goal:

“Mitch put the team on his back tonight,” said head coach Dean Baumhauer. “The shorthanded goal was one of those I’m not giving up type of plays. And the game-winner all started with him chipping the puck and fighting through a check to create the two-on-one.”

Baumhauer acknowledged it was far from a perfect effort from his club. “Both teams came in well-rested. There wasn’t a lot of ice out there. But we had a lot of guys fighting the puck tonight. It’s frustrating, but it happens. We didn’t win nearly enough possession off the draws…we’ve got to improve that if we’re going to be successful in this series. That was our number one problem tonight. We were chasing every shift.”

The coach pointed to the team’s experience and resiliency in keeping composed heading into the third period down a goal. “Our third period was excellent. We hung in there because we’ve been in these types of games before. We didn’t panic. We just needed to win a period. If that’s all you need to do, you might as well do it in overtime. We got game one on home ice. You want to get through this weekend winning at least two out of the first three games.”

The Eagles travel to Napanee Saturday for game two at the Strathcona Paper Centre at 7:30. Game three is back in Bowmanville Sunday afternoon at 3:25.