Feb 15, 2020 | Rich McNeil | 192 views
Game #2 - OMHA Q.F's - Down, but never count them out.
Sorry for the delay, but I needed to gather my thoughts after witnessing an exciting contest at the Madhouse. The Peewee A/E Dove Dental Express, after a light week, got back at it with game #2 vs the Wolves of Niagara on the Lake. Even though game#1 turned out to be a convincing 5-1 win, the Wolves were much better than that score indicated, and they made sure we knew it tonight.
Starting in goal tonight was Tanner Belore, who looked ready to go after a solid warmup. The boys are notorious for a slower start, but tonight we hoped that they would break the mold and try something a little easier on our nerves.
I must give credit where credit deserved, and the boys from Niagara were ready to play. In the first, they had a game plan to push the tempo of play, and that they did. The Express were not ready for this press style of hockey and you could tell they were out of their comfort zone. They made several errors with the puck, uncharacteristic errors, that finally cost them with three minutes left, the Express let them take the play to him, and a shot by the defense was deflected by Belore, who had no chance on the play. The Wolves took a one goal lead into the second frame.
In period two, the Wolves kept their foot on the gas, and the game started to get a little rougher, however it was apparent that the whistles were deep in the refs pockets, and they were going to let these kids play the game. It was the Wolves that found the back of the net again with 9:20 left. The boys continued to try to get a goal to swing the momentum, but the Wolves would again score, as their forward made a great move at the blue line and made a highlight reel deak that Belore desperately tried to get back to. Down by three, many teams would have thrown in the towel, but as a fan who has seen this episode before, I knew this was far from over, and a usual.... I was right. Before the 2nd ended, Tyler Fleming was able to feed the puck back to Kian Brown, who calmly found a lane and let a solid wrist shot go, which was by the goalie, before he could even get prepared to square up, and with that the period ended 3-1 with the Wolves in the lead.
In the third, Cole McNeil was able to gain control of a loose puck and calmly feed his forward Tyler Fleming, who carried the puck inside the offensive zone, and made a smart drop pass to a prepared Eli North, who took a line to the middle of the hash marks, and released a wicked wrister, that they did not even see as that puck was off his stick, and tickling the twine before you could blink an eye. The boys were down by one, and could smell blood. The boys finally figured out that two could play the game of aggressive hockey, and their full ice press on the Wolves totally took them off their game, and after they struggled to get the puck out of their own net, the only penalty of the game was called against the Wolves and the Express took full advantage. North would feed Logan Pare, who let a hard, low shot go, and through traffic, the comeback was complete, and the game was tied, but it was far from over. It was incredible to be a part of witnessing such a great effort by the hometown Express, but we wanted to see it come full circle, and our prayers were answered when Owen Clarke buried a puck behind the Wolves netminder, after a great job by his linemates Tyler Fleming and Taylor Murray to gain puck possession behind the net and find Clarke in the slot, ready willing and able. There was still seven minutes to play, and the boys just started to clog lanes, and did not give NOTL much in the way of space. When the puck was on goal, Tanner stood tall, and remained in control of the Express net. The buzzer could not come soon enough, and before you knew it, we won the game, a sense of relief and pride overwhelmed the enthusiastic and large crowd to gather to witness such and entertaining game. Get a good night sleep, as we make the trip down to NOTL for game 3 tomorrow, as we have a chance to close out the series. Great job boys, we are so proud of you.