(the title is me trying the replicate the TSN sound)

Its was a TSN Turning Point kinda night on Oct 15th as the Gators took on a old friendly rival... regular rival?... some kinda rival in Stealth Hockey

Why?  Cause I needed to think of a theme.  This one fit it.

A thankfully-rare after 11pm game start saw an unusually packed Gator Dressing room.  Earlier in the day it was looking to be a less than 2 full line squad, so this was a very welcome result before the game even started.

Insert dressing room banter, good natured ribbing of how horrible Michaels is at making Fantasy Hockey trades, and how Overton overrides any trade McRae initiates to Fetting and thats about the just of our regular game time preparation.

Gators hit the ice and we were off to the races.

First saw a fair amount of back and forth, good beaviour and almost no scoreboard action.  Almost.  Insert a speedy Stealth forward coming off the wing that sneaks a cross crease bingo and the Stealth ended the period up 1-0 on a Gator favored shot total of 16-11

Second saw the ice tilt in the Stealths favor on a few counter attacking breakaway tallies in a 23 second span and Gary started cracking some adult beverages in the dressing room.  Add a weird butt-ending penalty by the Stealth, end that penalty and insert another off-the-wing deke and the Gators looked at the scoreboard reading Stealth 4, Gators 0.  Faaaaack

I guess it needs to be said at this point that former Beaumont Chief Dillon Labine has historically had our number, so a 4 goal deficit for Gator historians would normally lead you to think this wasnt gonna end favorably.

Normally.

Normally up to the midway point of the third.  A nice passing play saw Aylward tip a shot low and past Labine... FINALLY.  Couple minutes later Buckley off a defensive zone draw a minute and a half later tipped a puck past the Stealth defender and went end to end for the Gators second goal.  Game looking a bit more respectible now.  Previously guilty player Laird from the Stealth decided to be not so nice to new Kevin, and in an interesting sequence, in front of a ref, drew corresponding rough penalties, and then Stealth's Waters didnt want to be left out of the dance and drew into corresponding rough penalties with New Kev as well. 

That New Kev, I like New Kev

So now that we've established no nacho coupon for the night, and the Gator got poked a bit, we may as well finish this one off on the good side of the result.  May as well right, at this point it was past midnight so may as well go home with a W

Buckley, now a man on a mission sniped the Gators third goal, and assisted on the game tying goal via McRae (who impressively hit the net and not 7ft high and wide).  A couple glorious last minute chance that could have ended it didnt finish, so off the the automatic sudden death shootout.

Laxton from Stealth, nope

Teske from Gators, damn

Waters from Stealth, nope

McRae from Gators, damn damn

New Kev, with a little redeption, and foreshadowing:  Bingo!

Rudowsky pings one off the outside of the post and Gators win.

Phew!

Circling back to the title, I'd say the TSN turning point was...

probably...

and I'm not an expert anaylst, but...

4 F-wording goals in 4 f-wording minutes.

 

We all get #GatorOfTheGame cause we just plain forgot to bring it, let alone award it.  Meh

Lowrey stops 30 for the W

Other Gator News:

Spenny went -4

Fetting on the short-term IR wit a widdle boo-boo on his pinky fingooo.   Full disclosure though I heard its pretty gross, so that makes way more sense. 

PSA: dont drop concrete on your pinky finger

Additional PSA:  Although the terms cement and concrete often are used interchangeably, cement is actually an ingredient of concrete.