The Magicians must have been celebrating their Saturday win. When they took the ice for Sunday’s second game against Kenai River, they were definitely “out of sync”. They should have taken a page from the Wilderness.
The Wilderness lost their opening home game to a tough Fairbanks team 2-1 Friday and came back to win 5-2 Saturday. NAHL teams, on the road, will struggle in their second game especially f the home team takes the first game, they should take the second.
The Sunday game started well with Derick Kuchera scoring the opening goal. Cody Milligan got the assist.
After Kuchera’s goal, the Magicians’ stopped playing their game. Instead, they played the Brown Bears game and stopped playing hockey. The Magicians drew 6 penalties in the first period; Kenai drew 5 penalties. In all, the refs called 29 penalties that resulted in 22 power plays. The Magicians failed to score in their 10 power plays; Kenai scored twice in their 12 power plays.
Do the math. Take away the two power play goals and the empty netter at the end of the game and the Magicians win.
The first power play goal came at the 8 minute mark of the first period. The Magicians had put themselves into a 5-on-3, nearly two minute penalty kill, situation. Halfway through the penalty kill, the ref ruled a penalty shot (see pictures 1-5). Fortunately, Magician goalie Toivanen, made the big stop. At that point, most fans were glad to see the penalty shot rather than another 2 minute penalty.
The Magician’s killed the 5-on-3, but the Magicians could not get set in the penalty kill for the 5-on-4 (Kenai had continued to control the puck in the Magicians’ zone. They ended up in a diamond formation and left the right weakside open. Kenai seized the opportunity and firing a pass from the right to left crease to Connor Deal for an easy goal. The game was tied 1-1.
After that goal, Kenai dropped into a four player across the Magicians’ half of the neutral zone and played dump the puck. The Magician forwards could not figure out how to reverse the puck or use the boards. Kenai’s play worked.
Both teams played flat in the first minutes of the second period. The Magicians opened on a power play and did nothing and then picked up a tripping penalty 3 minutes into the period. It resulted in a Kenai River power play goal by Albin Karlsson to put the Brown Bears up 2-1.
The key play of the game came with 4 minutes left in the second period. The refs didn’t blow it. As a result, they blew it.
Behaps they got used to the Kenai River bench yelling “ice, ice” on every Magician pass in the Kenai zone in the first period. When a Kenai defense man tried to hit a breaking Brown Bear in neutral ice by driving the puck off the right boards and missed; the puck traveled the length of the ice touching no one, but no icing was called.
Maybe the refs, being used to a penalty kill situation since so many were called, thought it was a clearing the zone play. The Magicians’ defense relaxed on the play and scrambled to recover. They didn’t. Jacob Davidson scored what turned out to be the game winner putting Kenai up 3-1.
Just as the period was ending, Tony Uglem breathed life back into the Magicians. Uglem picked up a puck at the end line on the left boards in the Kenai zone and fired a quick shot at the Brown Bears’ goal. The puck hit Kris Oldham in the left shoulder and bounced down into the upper left corner to cut the Kenai lead to 3-2.
The third period was as penalty filled as the first two. From the 3 minute mark to the 13 minute mark, the teams were playing either on the power play or the penalty kill. The Magicians never got rolling. They let Kenai River take them out of their game. Kenai’s Alec Butcher scored the empty netter to end the game 4-2.