Odyssey Shoot Out!

Hockey returned for a seventh season at the Odyssey last night, but it was hockey as we'd never seen it before. The new "Zero Tolerance" interpretation of the rules led to a lot of frustration on the ice and in the stands as a lot of the game was played with both teams short handed.

As for the game itself, the Giants took early advantage of the powerplays, Curtis Huppe working his way out from behind the goal to find Jason Ruff open in front of the net to slam home making it 1-0 after 10.21.

As the first period drew to a close, we got some quick goal-scoring action. First the Panthers found the net through Corey Neilson, taking advantage of a long 2 man powerplay. Barely a minute later George Awada found himself clean through after good work from Ruff and Dutiaume and fooled Evan Lindsay in the Panthers goal with a well taken goal. Finally with just 16 seconds left on the clock in the period, and the Giants again killing a penalty, Jeff Hutchins burst free down the left wing before a fine centring pass found Jason Ruff who made no mistake scoring his second of the game.

More penalty trouble followed through the game, especially for the Giants who were playing their first game under the zero tolerance rules. Despite the Giants having a strong looking penalty kill, the Panthers did eventually made their extra man pay. In the second period David Clarke scored on a power play to cut the deficit to one. And in the 3rd period Jan Kraijcek scored while the Giants were 2 men short again, with barely 3 minutes remaining.

The final score being 3-3 we went to sudden death over time. The OT period started with the Giants once again on the penalty kill. However the rest of the OT was uneventful and we were to see one of the other new rules for the season - a penalty shootout.

The Giants claimed the extra point, Mark Dutiaume scoring the only penalty of the shootout with a fine move to defeat Evan Lindsay.

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