T-Men Tie Salmonbellies 11-11

July 14, 2009

After falling to the Salmonbellies only two days ago, the TMEN were looking for some redemption when they faced them on July 11th. With all of the fighting and rough housing that happened during the first game of this home and home series, who knew what could happen. With a 7 o'clock start there was much anticipation for this home game.

The game got off to an extremely slow start for the t-men getting out scored 5-0 and out shot 20-10 in the first frame. What ever Coach Ranger said in the locker room during the intermission must have woken up the team because they came out firing in the second. Nanaimo scored 3 straight goals from Scott Ranger, Shane Pederson and Graham Palmer within the first 3 minutes of the second. Nanaimo then traded special team goals giving up a power play goal. Graham Palmer got his second of the night; a short handed goal with a nice pass from the goalie Matt Flindell, notching his third assist of his Senior A career. Nanaimo then got a series of power plays and connected on 3 of them with Kaleb Toth getting one and Cayle Ratcilff getting the other two. Two minutes after Ratcliff got his second of the night, he got the natural hat-trick by netting a short handed goal. The second period ended in an 8-8 tie with Nanaimo scoring all 8 in the second frame.

In the final period, the Salmonbellies jumped to a two goal lead with 6 minutes remaining but again Nanaimo's special teams helped out with Ranger notching his second of the night on the power play and Russell Tomas getting his first of the night coming by short handed. The third period was fairly quite with very few shots and penalties it ended in a tie 10-10, so over time was needed. During the over time period the bellies got a quick goal so Nanaimo was behind the eight ball again, pulling their goalie with 18 seconds left in the game Nanaimo had to do what ever it took to get that extra point. With time ticking down and the extra man on the floor, Cayle Ratcliff took the pass from Scott Ranger and fired it by the bellies tender with 12 seconds remaining to tie it up once again. Even though Nanaimo didn't get the win they showed great intensity to come back, and this would have to be one of Nanaimo's greatest come backs since rejoining the team in 2005. Nanaimo's special teams had a 180 degree turn around scoring 5 of 8 power play attempts and getting 3 short handed goals plus the extra man goal.

Nanaimo's next game is against the Maple Ridge Burrards in Maple Ridge. Check out www.tmen.com to listen to the game with a 6:45 start. Nanaimo's next home game is Saturday July 18th against Coquitlam Adanac's.