Day 46: ROV@SOC review

Alex Korolyuk pausing before the game to enjoy a delicious apple, which no doubt helped him to score a power-play goal against the Sockeyes later that evening.

Edmonton, AB (CP)

Playing the first of back-to-back road games, the Baffin Island Rovers knew that they had to bring their best effort to get past the much-improved South Edmonton Sockeyes. A 3-3 tie in front of a hostile crowd still leaves many questions unanswered, but it does tell the Rovers that they can still compete at the top while the teams around them accelerate their arms race.

The Sockeyes were debutting two new defensemen in Phillipe Boucher and Darryl Sydor, and were looking to make a statement about their new roster to the rest of the Champions Conference. To that end they came out of the gate with both guns blazing, outshooting the Rover 10-2 in the first period and scoring the only goal on Patrik Elias's seventh marker of the season. The Rovers weathered the storm and emerged in the second period to score early, on a Glen Murray tally, and late, with a Jokinen deflection, to take a 2-1 lead into the third. They increased their lead to 3-1 on the PP early in the period as Alex Korolyuk made a nifty dangle in front of the net. From that point, however, penalties were their downfall. The Rovers gave the Sockeyes four third period PP opportunities (10 overall in the game) and they capitalized twice on goals by Morrison and St. Louis. Martin Gerber played well throughout the game in his return from injury, stopping 28 of 31 shots, while Evgeni Nabokov turned aside 18 of 21 for South Edmonton.

The Rovers left the arena immediately after the game to fly to Albany to visit the StrapHangers tonight. Chris Mason should be ready for the contest, though he will likely dress only as the backup.