Feb 14, 2016 | NVanderBaan | 602 views
Anderson Appliance vs. Delhi Rockets
The Express train hit the rails on Friday night and made a stop at the Delhi arena to take on the Rockets. The Rockets took home the win when they visited Ingersoll last week so the Anderson Appliance crew would be out to even the score. Both teams showed up to play and a great game ensued. It was a quiet first period as the teams battled for puck possession and the defence collapsed on the streaking forwards creating lots of offsides and neutral zone turnovers. The game picked up speed and opened up opportunities as clock ticked down and Ingersoll put some points on the board and took home the victory! Congratulations Ingersoll, that makes 2 wins in row.
With no goals being scored in the first period, #5 Riley Vyse proved his worth making some great saves and holding the puck to get a whistle and change up the lines. The defence played a great game, backing up each other and not letting the Delhi forwards to sneak behind them as they did the last time they met. A few break aways happened for both sides with #9 Noah Muller getting his first good chance to score but the puck stuck in some water and prevented the sniper from getting a good shot away. Delhi managed to break a player free of the pack shortly after but Ingersoll's #3 Owen VanderBaan did a great job of back checking and caught up to the Rocket in time to knock the puck into the corner and out of harms way. Great play Owen! With neither team able to score the first period ended in a 0-0 tie.
The second period had some ice open up and the players where able to get a few more chances to put the puck in the net. Riley continued making the saves to preserve the shut out and defence did a great job of clearing the puck up to the waiting forwards. #20 Ben Baker did a great job of holding the blue line and it payed off in a goal after he made a great stop and followed it up with an even better pass to #14 Dylan Craib. Dylan made a great move to shake off the defender and ripped the puck high over the goalie to score the first goal of the game! Great shot Dylan! That put Ingersoll up by 1 with 7:55 on the clock. The Express team was fired up now and put the pressure on the Rockets getting the puck deep in the offensive zone and blasting the shots on net. The pressure on the Delhi goalie was too much and #9 Noah Muller got the second goal of the game with 49 seconds left in the period. Noah tipped the puck away from the defender and fired a shot up high over the diving goalie. Way to go Noah! The period ended with Ingersoll up 2 goals.
The third period was even more wide open hockey as players tired and the puck found some cracks in the defence. Both teams took turns doing end to end rushes and both goalies made the stops when called upon. Nearly half the period passed without a change in score but #14 Dylan Craib got his hot stick on the puck at the red line and put on a serious display of stick handling down the centre of the ice. After splitting the defence Dylan had the goalie sliding sideways and slipped the puck in the open side of the net at 6:12. That was Awesome to watch Dylan! That made the score 3-0 for Ingersoll. Delhi didn't give up and gave a solid effort to try cut the lead. The puck made it's way into the Ingersoll zone and a hard shot made it passed Riley and went post to post behind him and kicked out under him as he lay on the ice. The referee signalled "no goal" and Ingersoll caught a real break on that one. Ingersoll went on the power play with 3:49 to go in the game but it was Delhi who took advantage of the open ice and scored a short handed goal at 1:59 breaking Riley's shut out. Ingersoll was still in the drivers seat, up 3-1 with less than 2 minutes to play in the game. Ingersoll closed the door on any Delhi comeback when #10 Kian "The Wrastle'r" Brown lined up at left wing in front of the Delhi goal for the face off. #15 Logan Pare won the face-off and made a quick "tape to tape" pass to Kian who banged home the puck before the goalie realized where the puck was! Nice goal Kian and great teamwork Logan! The remaining seconds ran off the clock and the game finished with a 4-1 score. Great game Ingersoll!