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Pirates lose their playoff home opener to Stampeders
Emily Plihal
for Smoky River Express
The Falher Pirates have been eagerly anticipating this moment for four months. It is now time for them to prove they are able to maintain home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
Finishing second in the East Division, the Pirates are expected to easily sail by their competition for the first round, the Peace River Stampeders.
The Stamps visited the Pirates’ pond on Feb. 9 to open up the first round of the playoffs.
A ceremonial face-off between Pirates’ captain Jason Bouchard and Stamps’ Terry Houlder began the introduction to the playoffs. Pirates’ major sponsors were thanked during the face-off, welcomed onto the ice by the two teams.
Starting goalie for the Pirates was Stephane Pelletier, while Peace River’s Bretton Stewart was between the pipes.
First period action was high-flying. Both teams came out throwing the body, trying to knock one another of their set game.
Stampeders opened the scoring at 5:12 of the first period. Aaron Parenteau sent a puck flying past Pelletier off a feed from Nick Laporte and Brad Kerr.
Shots in the first period were tied at nine shots per team.
The Stamps continued their on-ice dominance, scoring at 11:00 of the second. Mitch Kohut scored off a play generated by Nick Laporte and Brad Kerr.
Pirates were determined not to just lay down and allow the Stamps to have an easy victory.
Brennen Francon scored with just 30 seconds left in the second off feeds from this year’s NPHL MVP Jason Bouchard and All-Star team defenceman Scott Hicks.
Stamps out-shot the Pirates by a margin of 18–13 in the second period. Pirates fell into some minor penalty problems in the second, allowing the Stamps to have two five-on-three advantages.
Falher managed to tie up the game in the third period at just 2:20. Tim Clayton capitalized on a play generated by forward Daniel Aubin.
Peace River scored on a power play at 5:37 to take the lead back from the Pirates.
Chris Houlder scored the game winning goal, with assists awarded to Brad Kerr and Terry Houlder.
Pirates out-shot the Stamps with a margin of 16–8 through the third, but Stewart stood on his head throughout the period, allowing just one goal on all 16 shots.
Pirates narrowly out-shot the Stamps in the game with a shot tally of 38–35.
Stamps power play success made the difference in the game, with one goal scored on six opportunities.
Pirates did not manage to score on any of their four power play chances.
Last Wednesday, Jason Bouchard was officially announced as the Most Valuable Player in the North Peace Hockey League in the 2009–2010 season.
Named to the NPHL Eastern All-Star team were Bouchard at centre, Scott Hicks on defence and left wing Daniel Aubin.
NPHL statistician Chris Clegg explains nine of the players named to the NPHL all-star teams were first time recipients.
Falher had the most players named to the team with three.
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Pirates’ Brennen Francon observes a tussle between the linesman and Peace River Stampeders’ Chris Houlder during their playoff opener on Feb. 11.
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