Saturday evening saw the only IIHL encounter of the week take place with the Dublin Rams hosting the Dublin Wolves. Last time these two teams meet, the Rams romped to an 8 – 1 victory. This time though, the Wolves came out all guns blazing and were up after only 32 seconds of play. Tyler May received a partial breakaway and shot a low wrist shot past Sean Gibson, in nets for the Rams. To lump even more worry onto the league leading Rams side, the Wolves took a two goal lead four minutes later through Roman Bnocko. The Rams seemed slightly lost but that second goal gave them a bit more energy and they pounded the Wolves’ keeper with shot after shot. Dermot Carney made some key saves in those early minutes but he was unable to do anything to stop a brilliant deflection from William Morrison which went straight to the top corner. An excellent goal, it must be said, with Andrew Moriarty and Brad Heraghty picking up assists. A minute later, Aaron Murphy tied the game with Bret Dilabbio and Thomas Hartley getting the assists. With ten minutes gone in the first period, the game was tied and the action was end-to-end. The Rams then added two more with goals coming from Hunter Cape followed by the Rams fifth of the night from Heraghty. This gave them a 5 – 2 lead going into the second period. Carney was the busier of the 2 keepers in the first, facing 26 shots with Gibson’s defence doing well to keep the Wolves to only 8 shots on goal.
The 2nd period started the same as the first with the Wolves’ getting an early goal on the powerplay through May with the assist coming from Andrew Duncan. They added another goal to cut the Rams’ lead to only one goal. Duncan got the goal with Wes Wilson picking up the assist. The score was now 5 – 4 to the Rams and the Rams couldn’t find a way past Carney in the period. However, both teams did spend more time in the penalty box as the play got very physical with some over zealous stick work taking place. Going into the third Period the Rams were sweating as they were dominating play but weren’t creating any real chances. The Wolves on the other hand were just clearing the zone and trying to catch the Rams on the break with their forwards using their speed to create some odd man rushes. The Rams struck first in the period with Heragty getting his 2nd of the night. However, Duncan brought the Wolves back within a goal two minutes later. The Rams then went on a bit of a rampage and in the last eight minutes of the game, scored six unanswered goals to assure themselves of a win and three points in the standings. Goals came from Heragty, Morrison, Cape, Stevie Hamill and Aaron Cuskeran. The final score was 12 – 5 to the Rams. Carney faced 56 shots while Gibson faced 31 shots. The Rams also had 26 minutes in penalties to the Wolves’ 22 minutes.
Final Score Rams 12 – 5 Wolves
SOG Rams 56 – 31 Wolves
PIM Rams 26 – 22 Wolves