Feb 02, 2020 | Rich McNeil | 193 views
Game #2 OMHA Playdowns - Heartbreak in Tillsonburg
The Peewee A/E's headed down hwy 19 with a date with Tillsonburg. With us winning game 1, we were in a position to put ourselves in a great spot with game 3 back in Ingersoll. However we had some work to do, against a Tornadoes team that has a great goaltender, and are able to capitalize on their chances. In between the pipes was Tanner Belore.
The first period was a scoreless affair, where both teams took their time getting their legs underneath them. There was lots of open ice, but active sticks on both sides, kept anything from really getting through. As the period wore on the Express continued to gain momentum, hoping to carry that into the second period.
It was in that second period, a missed shot on net by Owen Clarke, was chased down by Taylor Murray, who found Clarke on the doorstep, and shot it by the Tornadoes netminder, who just did not get to the post in time. Instead of taking advantage of this, some misfortune almost immediately after in the defensive zone, we gave the Tillsonburg shooter an opportunity to rifle one past Belore, who did his best to block the shot. We would be all tied up at 1-1 heading to the final period.
Period 3 was all Express, but an even better Tillsonburg goaltender who made save after save. We did everything to put one past him, but to no avail, and as misfortune would have it, another breakdown in our zone, gave Tillsonburg a clean shot from the slot, that beat Belore blocker side with only 1:00 left on the clock. With the extra attacker on, we could not muster another scoring opportunity, and even though we outshot our competition 2 to 1, we walked away with the loss. The kids deserved a better fate. They will have to find a way to bury that puck past this netminder on Tuesday, as we host game #3.