Post by QC Mike on Oct 23, 2023 23:04:13 GMT -7
The Quarrymen kicked off their season with their visit to Ireland to do battle with the Patriots. The Q-Men were obviously suffering from the aftereffects of their long flight as Shamrockville jumped all over the visitors from the opening puck drop. Quad Cities skaters were unable to find their legs and took a couple of early "lazy" penalties. While they were able to kill these off it gave th home side the momentum and Nick Bjugstead piled on when his wrister beat Alexander Georgiev to give the Patriots the 1-0 lead. Just over two minutes later Jamie Oleksiak fired a laser in from the point past Georgiev to double Shamrockville's lead. K'Andre Miller attempted to fire up the visitors with a big hit that shook up Mattias Ekholm but a blatant "make-up" call on Miller later in his shift helped to squelch any energy the Quarrymen might have gotten from it. Shamrockville going into the second up by that 2-0 score. While Quad Cities were able to avoid the bad penalties in the second this ice was still decidely tilted in Shamrockville's favour as Georgiev found himself under siege. He did his best to hold the fort but Sean Kuraly extended the lead and sending the home side into the intermission up 3-0. The third saw Quad Cities start to skate a little better and force the Patriots into taking some penalties and tilting the ice in their favour. The QuarryMen's attempt to come back was derailed when when Braydon McNabb caught Claude Giroux with a high hit that saw Giroux helped to the dressing room and not return. A few minutes later after killing another penalty the Quarrymen lost track of Connor McDavid who went end to end for an unassisted dagger to put an end to any thoughts of a come back. Nazem Kadri scored with two minutes left to break up the shut out bid as Shamrockville skated to the 4-1 win.
Quad Cities 1 (5 chances on 25 shots) v Shamrockville 4 (12 chances on 42 shots)
Stars
1. Connor McDavid (BEP) - 1G, 1A, 5 chances
2. Nazem Kadri (QCQ) - 1G, 3 chances
3. Darcy Kuemper (BEP) - W, 1 GA on 5 chances, 1 Assist
The rematch back in the Qualcomm Quad City Quonset Hut had the fans for the first five minutes thinking the circus hadn't left town. Bent Burns was awarded a penalty shot inside the first minute that he was successful on. Nazem Kadri tied it up at the four minute mark. Mark Schieffle restored the Patriots lead on the rush off the ensuing face off. Schieffle then won the ensuing face off but broke his stick and sent in Will Borgen on the break away but Connor Helleybuck was able to fight the shot off and keep the visitors ahead. Scheiffle doubled Belfasts lead at 12:24 with Lawson Crouse extending it to 4-1 with two minutes remaining in the first which is the way the frame ended. The second period saw Connor McDavid awarded a penalty shot just over two minutes into the second but Alexander Georgiev was able to fend him off and bring some energy to the home side. Quad City pressure started a parade to the penalty box for the Patriots but the home side was unable to generate much from it until Claude Giroux beat Helleybuck at 13:36 with Sean Kuraly off for hooking and and a misconduct for calling the referee a c*#*sucker. The second ending 4-2 for Shamrockville. Less then a minute into the third Lawson Crouse caught K'Andre Miller coming around the net. Miller had to be stretchered off the ice and did not return to the game. Jamie Oleksiak blasted one past Georgiev at the six minute mark. Nick Schmaltz clawed that back off some tenacious forechecking a few minutes later. Oleksiak restored the three goal lead with less than three minutes remaining. Helleybuck denied Cale Makar off a breakaway with under two minutes remaining to seal the win for Shamrockville 6-3.
Shamrockville 6 (9 chances on 49 shots + 1PS goal) vs Quad Cities 3 (4 chances on 33 shots)
Stars
1. Jamie Oleksiak (BEP) - 2 G
2. Mark Scheiffle (BEP) - 2 G
3. Nazem Kadri (QCQ) - 1 G, 2 chances on 6 shots
