27/02/2022 Adelaide Summer League Unicorns v Huskies 3-4OT

Photos from the Adelaide Summer League Division 2 game between the Unicorns and the Huskies played on 27/02/2022 at the Ice Arena, Adelaide, South Australia.  The Unicorns still winless with 2 games left of the minor round were desperate for their first win of the season given they would be up against the top side, the Titans in the last game.  Eleven seconds into the game the Unicorns game couldn’t have started better as captain Alan Blackwell scored unassisted on a breakaway.  At 17:36, Huskies Brendan Deboy would equalise, also unassisted.  At the 8:34 mark, the Huskies would score the go ahead goal when Richard Kennedy scored after assists from Deboy and Jana Mojzisek.  The score would remain the same for the period and both teams did not get any penalties.  Unicorns outscoring the Huskies 11 shots on goal to 8.

The second period took until the 12:45 mark before a goal was scored, once again by Unicorns Blackwell, again unassisted to even the score at 2-all.  At 7:41, Huskies Renai Harvey would head to the bench for a tripping minor giving the Unicorns the chance to go ahead with the extra player advantage.  The Huskies penalty kill unit worked their magic and the score stayed the same.  With just over 4mins remaining in the period, Huskies Greg Campbell combined with Deboy to give Deboy his second goal for the game and the Huskies once again too the lead.  The score remained at 3-2 in favour of the Huskies.  Shots on goal count was won by the Huskies 13 to 11.

The third period was all one-way traffic as recent Division 3 promoted player Adrian (wearing Willett #55) for the Unicorns went ballistic putting shot after shot on goal.  At 14:49 big Scott Jacobs of the Huskies was deemed for roughing and headed to the bench putting the Unicorns on a powerplay.  Later in the game he would land an accidental high stick to the throat before collide heavily with alternate captain Katie Johnson, knocking the wind out of her sails.  Unicorns Adrian was eventually was rewarded at the 10:13 mark with a goal.  The assist went to Jake Vonow.  The score remaining at 3-all so the game was going to overtime.  Interestly the shots on goal count was a massive 18 shots to 4 in favour of the Unicorns!

Overtime period, played 4-on-4 was grinding along towards the end of the period until the 4mins mark when Unicorns Dave Lister was deemed for tripping, the last thing the Unicorns needed, by they were successful in seeing off the penalty.  Unfortunately for the Unicorns, just when it looked like they might come away with points for a draw, Huskies Deboy muscled away in front of the heavily congested goal mouth and the puck spilled off a Unicorns played beating the glove of their goal tender Tyler Duchene, a mere 17 seconds from the end of the period.  Shots on goal were 4 for the Unicorns and 3 for the Huskies.  Overall shots on goal had showed the Unicorns had turned a corner with 44 shots vs 28 shots for the Huskies.  Many thanks to Jordan and Karen Kutsche for the photos.

The following week against the top team Titans, the Unicorns hammered them on the shots on goal count 42 to 14, with 41 shots coming in the 3rd period alone!  However the Titans would win 4-1, scoring all their goals in the first period before the Unicorns shut them down totally.