Despite Overwhelming Possession Blues Fail to Score

The Blues had a long bus ride yesterday down to Princeton NJ and Lawrenceville school. As is the tradition at the Lawrenceville Tournament all the boys sleep in the Lawrenceville gym with other teams in the tournament. As anyone can imagine the resulting poor sleep can have its effects.

First up for the Blues Friday morning was the host school Lawrenceville School. The first period was lacklustre as the Blues despite owning the bulk of the possession were outshot 8-6 in a sloppy first period by both teams. The second period started off a little better and saw a couple of nice plays by D-man Ethan Williams along with a bone-crunching hit by the same big defenseman. Once again the Blues were outshot in the second despite having the better scoring chances 10-8. Two of Lawrenceville's shots could easily have been goals had it not been for great stops made by the Blues Joe Howe. Going into the third the Blues looked to pick up their game and on the very first shift, they looked like they might as MacIntosh stepped up on his man putting him to the ice. The Blues were generating good looking opportunities, but couldn't seem to solve a big and reasonably mobile Lawrenceville D core. They just couldn't seem to get their shots away and when they did far too many of them didn't find the net. The game stayed knotted at zeros until the 6:30 mark of the third when #19 of Lawrenceville got a bit of a lucky bounce but a strong effort to get to the left faceoff dot where he wristed a shot right into the far top corner over the glove of Joe Howe for a 1-0 lead. This seemed to ignite the Blues as PJ Bujouves flew up the right wing where he beat the D man and headed to the net only to be brought down by a diving trip. During the ensuing penalty, the Blues were unable to register a single shot despite looking very dangerous at times. Lawrenceville smartly cleared the puck down the ice at every opportunity as the Blues desperation mounted. Fast forward to the final minute and a half and that's when the excitement really started. At the 1:20 mark the Blues had two golden opportunities including a wide-open backdoor play that failed to result in a goal. Thirty seconds later the Lawrenceville team earned a 2 on 1 with the Blues net empty only to hit the post as a disaster was temporarily averted for the visiting team. Fifteen seconds later the Blues were back on the doorstep only to be robbed by the Lawrenceville goalie. Despite being outshot 21-20 in the game the Blues outshot Lawrenceville in the last four minutes 6-0 in an exciting but disappointing finish as the Blues lost their first tournament game 1-0.