NORAD Draft Hockey League

Eight weeks into the season, and NORAD Hockey found a new gear — literally the opposite ends of it. One game produced a single goal. Another produced twelve. Here's the full Week 8 breakdown.

Platinum 1, OS Offices 0

In a league that's delivered its share of high-scoring shootouts, Week 8 served up the counter-programming: a pure goaltending duel. Austin Storm's unassisted first-period strike at 10:34 stood up as the only goal of the night, and from there it was all about the two netminders. Brandon Ward turned aside everything OS Offices threw at him to post the clean sheet, while Justin Bell kept Platinum off the board apart from Storm's one shot that found twine.

Platinum improved to 5-1-2 with the win, while OS Offices slipped to 4-2-1. Sometimes the best story of the week is the one where almost nothing happened.

Velodrome 5, Triple J 2

Triple J actually struck first through Kyle Popovich, but that was the last good news for the home side. Velodrome answered with three unanswered goals in the second period — Mike Flood, Ty Smith, and Ronnie Pinnell all finding the net — to seize control, then added two more in the third to pull away for good.

Ty Smith and Mike Flood each finished with two goals for Velodrome, who got the game-winner from Pinnell in the second and never looked back. Keegan Mantaro's goal and assist accounted for both of Triple J's points on a night the visitors controlled from the midway point on.

World Orphans 6, ACE 4

World Orphans jumped out to a 4-0 lead through a period and a half, getting multiple contributions from Austin Webb, Chad Ferguson, BJ LaChat, and Casey Victor before ACE started to climb back into it. Josh Engle and Simon Kurtz traded goals with Chad Ferguson down the stretch of the second, with Kurtz beating the buzzer to make it 5-2 heading to the third.

ACE kept pushing in the third — Simon Kurtz completed a two-goal night and Sam Boudreault added a late consolation marker — but World Orphans had enough of a cushion to hold on for the 6-4 win. Austin Webb was the story of the night with two goals and an assist, while BJ LaChat chipped in a goal and two helpers.

Nelson & Company 4, OUTCAN Outlaws 3

Kyle Cook put together a three-goal night for OUTCAN, and for a while it looked like it might be enough. Cook opened the scoring, then put the Outlaws back in front in the second with a goal of his own after TJ Liebl had tied it up, and added a third in that same stretch to make it 3-2. Nelson & Company answered right back through Zach Frank early in the third to tie it again, and Chris Tunning delivered the game-winner at 7:42 of the third to seal the 4-3 result.

The lead changed hands twice in the final two periods, and Cook's hat trick was nearly enough to steal it — but Tunning's third-period strike proved to be the difference for Nelson & Company.

Parker Winnelson 6, J&J Automotive 6 (Tie)

This one had two separate hat tricks and still couldn't produce a winner. Parker Winnelson raced out to a 3-0 first-period lead on two goals from Nicholas Lang and one from Mitch Mayfield, but J&J Automotive stormed back with four unanswered goals across the second period — two from Sam Downs and two from Jonathan Valtin — to take a 4-3 lead into the third.

The back-and-forth continued deep into the final frame. Andrew Lunn put J&J Automotive up 5-4, Jared Wolf tied it for Parker Winnelson, Valtin completed his hat trick to retake the lead at 6-5, and Nicholas Lang completed his own hat trick with just over a minute left to force the 6-6 final. Valtin and Lang both finished with three goals apiece in a game that saw the lead change hands repeatedly down the stretch.

The Big Picture

Week 8 showed off both ends of what this league can do — a tightly checked 1-0 classic on one end, and a wide-open 12-goal shootout on the other, with two different players completing hat tricks in the very same game. Eight weeks in, NORAD Hockey still refuses to be predictable.