Jan 22, 2012 | Dan Culbert | 955 views
99ERS Shutout Nationals In Road Win
Hot on the heels of a solid performance on the weekend, the Contractors Rental Supply Midgets scored another road win with a solid 4-0 shut out of the London Nationals. Connor Curtin was solid in goal earning the shut out and Dakota Culbert's second period goal stood up as the game winner, his third in a row, and team leading 4th of the season. In what could only be described as a chippy affair, the 99ers took advantage of their opportunities scoring on 3 of 14 PP's while the Nationals were 0 for 9.
Insert Culbert
The first period ended scoreless, despite a combined 6 PP's as the fast pace was littered with big hits and a ton of penalties both called and not called as there were so many infractions that it was impossible to call them all and even have a game. Despite having two extra PP's it was the Nationals who outshot the 99ers for the period and this is where Curtin came up big when called upon.
The trend of penalties continued in the second, but this time the 99ers drew first blood as a just after a 5 on 3 ended Culbert took a feed from Stefan DeDominicis and fired a shot from the left circle off the near post and in behind the Nationals goalie to open the scoring about 4 minutes into the period. Less than a minute later, Matt General wristed one at the net from the right side, and even though the save was made, the rebound bounced up and hit Tyler Schaeffer who was crashing the net before finding it's way into the net. Brantford carried the play and the shot advantage, but Curtin was good making a couple of saves as the Nationals counterattack tried to steal back some momentum from a strong road game period.
In the third it was Brantford's turn to provide the PP's to the home team, taking the first 4 penalties in the period and they certainly took advantage of the manpower advantage firing a steady stream of shots at Curtin who made two scramble saves and the help of a post to hold the lead at two. The turning point came late in the period when one of the Nationals took a hit from behind major with just over 5 mins to go in the period and the 99ers scored two more on this infraction to put the game out of reach. Jesse Stremler, the recipient of the hit, made them pay scoring from in close on the right side on a nice feed from Culbert with less than 2 minutes to play. On the same major, Mike Gotkowski wristed one home 20 seconds later, with Larry Hill and Andrew Lombardi picking up the helpers as the 99ers then ran out the clock.
Up next is a return match with the 4th place Nationals coming to Brantford to take on the 7th place 99ers later this week.