I prefer watching hockey games from slightly above the ice, but the Breakaway Grill was closed so I set up shop behind Team White's goalie. I play defense myself and I prefer seeing the game from that particular angle. It seemed to me that there was more hitting going on than in the first scrimmage. Nothing cheap, but guys were making sure to finish checks and eliminate their man in the corner. I'll run through the goals and then list the key plays that I witnessed using each player's name and number.
Goal 1 Riley Holzapfel went top corner from the high slot.
Goal 2 John Albert drove the net and deftly finished off a nice pass from the opposite boards from Paul Postma. It was a roof shot from bottom of the left circle.
Goal 3 Andrew Kozek ripped a high shot from the top of the circle after a turnover at the blueline (not sure who turned it over).
Goal 4 Spencer Machacek scored after Evander Kane controlled the puck in the right corner and dished to the crease.
2nd period
Goal 5 Spencer Machacek 2nd but it was Evander Kane who created space by carrying the puck up the right side which drew the attention of the defense. Again he slipped the puck across to Machacek who took care of business at his end.
Goal 6 Eric O'Dell with another nifty shot on the left side between the faceoff dot and the hash marks.
Goal 7 Either Kane of Machacek, I'm not sure which as it was at the far end and I was trying to write and watch at the same time.
Goal 8 Drew Paris buried a wide open chance near the top of the left circle on a good heads up pass from Doug Jones.
Shootout. Just one goal. Victor Saponari made a nice fake and then did a backhand flip into the top right corner of the net. Others who shoot and failed to convert were: Daultan Leveille, Carl Klingberg, Levko Koper, Nick Prockow, Miek Looby, Ben Chiarot, Will O'Neill, Eric O'Dell.
Plays that caught my eye--I tried to write down everything notable regardless of who it was.
33 Ed Pasquale absolutely robbed Jeremy Morin who at point blank range whet five hole (I guess he won't be serving fries at McDonalds just yet!). Followed that up with a terrific lateral save on 63 who attempted a back door slam dunk play.
40 John Albert created a turnover that led to a scoring chance.
41 Daultan Leveille high slot scoring chance. Came back and made a nice defensive zone play.
42 Andrew Kozek drove the net and shot. Later made a nice pass to spring Holzapfel who appeared to be tripped to me (no call).
43 Riley Holzapfel had a nice offensive zone steal.
44 Carl Klingberg showed off his hands by knocking a fluttering puck out of the air. On another shift he carried the puck from behind his own net 180 feet for a shot on net and then added a 2nd SOG that same shift. Made a really nice pass to send Drew Paris in on goal.
45 Jeremy Morin absolutely ripped two shots one. The first hit the glass with great force exactly where my head was behind the glass and I had ringing in my ears for a couple of minutes. I moved to the left post side of the goalie and he missed wide left--just left of my head. Both shots were very hard.
49 Evander Kane was part of a 3 on 0 odd man break and missed the net, but he collected 3 points on other plays.
52 Cody Sol did everything but score--his slap shot hit crossbar and then the post and deflected wide.
53 Vinny Saponari had a partial breakaway for a quality scoring chance. Lowered his shoulder and went hard to the net.
56 Zach Redmond made a really smart offensive zone dump around that rimmed around to Evander Kane on the goalie's back door side. Later had a scoring chance when he pounced on a loose puck. Broke up a play with a good poke check. Was slashed earning his team a Penalty Shot (Kyle Reed did not convert).
58 Eric O'Dell drove the net hard--save.
59 The goalie mishandled the puck behind the net and Kozek passed it over to Danick Paquette who literally drove the net and ended up nearly eating the post.
60 Paul Postma made another sweet dish to John Albert for a scoring chance (this is a different play than the goal listed above).
63 Doug Jones had a good hard battle in the offensive zone.
66 Levko Koper had a big defensive clear when his team was running around a bit. Backchecked and won a defensive zone steal and made a great outlet to spring Leveille for a rush up ice. Nice scoring chance on the right side off a pass.
67 Mike Looby steal, later a nice defensive play. A couple of big hits.
70 Nick Prockow won a steal on the forecheck and dished to John Albert for a chance.
71 Kyle Reed missed Penalty Shot (a substitute for PIMs in 4 on 4 games).