Puckers end 2016 with a win

Before heading into the Christmas and year-end break, the Puckers hosted Strasbourg 2 for the final game of the year and won by a score of 14-2.
After the home and away win/loss against the Strasbourg 1 team, there was an element of desire for revenge against the B team, but as hockey is a gentlemen's sport and the Puckers are true examples of fair and gentlemanly players, the goal was not to run up the score and rout the friendly team from Alsace. In fact, leading scorer Nick Aubin

 very fairly left his spot for other players on the roster who did not get a chance to play against the stronger pool teams like Strasbourg 1 and Epinal. Perennial goal getter Mike Mekhaeel

 was also not on the roster, as weren't defensemen Alban Menguelti

 and Ainars Freimanis

.

However, it only took 21 seconds before Jonathan Laforge

 opened the scoring on a pass from Patrick Ahlstrand

. Ahlstrand, the Aubin replacement on the line with Laforge and captain Yves Barthels

 did well on the line that would end up scoring 7 of the 14 goals. Three more goals would be scored in the first period. Barthels one-timed the pass from Laforge from behind the net for the 2-0, then Laforge added his second from Ahlstrand. Miikka Heinonen

 also scored on passes from Niclas Lundberg

 and Frederic Leduc

 just before the end of the period.

The second period saw 5 more goals scored. Laforge completed the hattrick on a deke going fivehole after taking the stretch pass from Barthels at the blue line. Momo Lutov scored a couple, one of which on the powerplay. The captain scored his second of the night on yet another pass from Laforge and finally Bohus Kostohryz took the feed from Laforge for his second goal of the season.

In the final period, goalie Federico "Luigi" Ferrari finally also saw some action in his season debut, but allowed 2 goals from Strasbourg 2. But 5 additional goals by the Puckers sealed the easy win before the teams would head out to have a meal together. Lutov scored just a minute into the period. Then Arnaud Guillard

 would score his first Puckers goal on a feed from Vladimirs Lutovs

. Ahlstrand would finally also get his goal on passes from both his linemates, Heinonen scored his second of the night and Lutov completed his hattrick for the final score of 14-2.

The hard hat was passed to Guillard for scoring his first goal, but Laforge had a great night with 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists).

The next home game will be against Besancon on January 14.

Happy holidays to all that follow Puckers Nation.

written by The Captain, on 23.12.2016 at 10:39 h. Tweet