Jan 07, 2020 | Rich McNeil | 142 views
Game #1 Tough Loss to open the 2nd half
With International Silver Stick on the horizon, the Peewee A/E boys started their 2nd half playoff round vs the Huskies from New Hamburg. Starting in goal was Tanner Belore who has fully recovered from a foot injury prior to the holidays.
The Huskies came out flying, on a mission to reclaim the season series lead, after we beat them in the last game of the season, to claim top spot. Our boys matched their pace, but it was the Huskies who got on the board first after a unsuccessful clearing attempt found it's way behind Belore. Not thirty seconds later, New Hamburg scored again, and before we could catch our breath, it was already 2-0. The boys settled down, but the fact of the matter was, they really bottled up the neutral zone, minimizing us from utilizing our speed to any sort of advantage.
The second period was a scoreless affair exchanging chances, but at the end of the day, we could not get any quality shots on the netminder, even though we continued to press hard, the visitors did a great job keeping us from creating space. Our passes were off, the puck was always in our feet and when the buzzer sounded, we still had a two goal deficit to overcome.
We finally got our mojo in the third, and a goal by Eli North after some nice cross ice passing from Kian Brown to Logan Pare got the puck into a crowded front of the net Jeremy Stiles got off a shot, before North could deposit it. The balance of the period was a collection of missed opportunities which included hitting opponents legs and sticks, sliding pucks passed the open cages and just plain old bad bounces. With an effort like this, the kids probably deserved a point, but the puck has to cross the line to count.... and that clearly did not happen. As always, their was no quit in our boys and now get a day off before their opening match on Thursday. All the best in your participation in Pelham boys.... we are all behind you all. Go Express Go!!