Eimantas Noreika has 3 points, but Venom fall 5-3 to Bobcats

by Ben Leeds

The Hudson Valley Venom came up empty on a weekend road trip to Virginia, losing their second straight game to the Blue Ridge Bobcats by a score of 5-3 at the Hitachi Energy Arena on Saturday. They were shut out by the Bobcats 4-0 on Friday.


Eimantas Noreika led Hudson Valley with three points–a goal and two assists–and five other Venom players recorded a point. Davide Gaeta and Quinn Chevers each scored a goal, and Danila Belov, Austin Pickford, Blake Siewertesen and Jakob Stahl each added an assist.


Noreika is now tied for the FPHL lead with 13 goals and is third with 23 points in 11 games.


Similar to how they started the game Friday, the Bobcats wasted no time pouncing on the Venom to take an early 1-0 lead. This time it was Daniel Martin, who corralled a rebound at the high slot and fired a wrist shot into the back of the net at 1:39.


However, the Venom quickly worked their way back into the game before the Bobcats could add to their lead. Noreika worked his way through the defense and sent his 13th goal of the season past Hunter Virostek to tie things up at 3:44.


The Venom got in their own way less than a minute later; Chevers went to the box for cross-checking at 4:33, then Pickford committed a delay of game penalty at 4:38. Blue Ridge made the most of the five-on-three advantage, taking back the lead thanks to a goal from Vladislav Vlasov on a perfect pass from Dmitri Selyutin at 5:50.


After killing off a Venom power play, the Bobcats padded their lead when Savva Smirnov escaped on a breakaway, scoring against goalie Eli Bowers to make it 3-1 at 11:37. Though he let in three goals in the first period, Bauers saved 10 shots on goal to keep the Venom in it despite the puck staying in their zone for most of the period.


Hudson Valley got off to a perfect start in the second period; Gaeta scored a smooth power play goal -- his fourth of the season -- to shrink the deficit to one just 20 seconds into the period. But similar to the first period, the Bobcats had a resounding answer to a Hudson Valley goal.


Alex Norwinski scored at 2:11 to push Blue Ridge’s lead back to two, then only nine seconds later Vlasov netted his second goal of the night to give the Bobcats a 5-2 lead.


The Venom got one back when a nice pass from Gaeta gave Chevers a good look at the net. Virostek turned aside his first shot, but Chevers deposited the rebound into the net for his second goal of the season at 7:58 to make the score 5-3.


From there, defense took over as neither team scored in the rest of the second period, and the entirety of the third period. Virostek prevented a late-game Venom rally, stopping all 12 shots he faced in the third to end the game with 28 saves. Bowers made 35 saves for Hudson Valley.


The Venom return to action next Saturday, looking to end a three-game skid, when they visit the Watertown Wolves.