The Ingersoll Carmeuse Lime Express Juvenile rep beat the Woolwich
Wildcats 3-1 on Saturday night to take 1-0 game lead in the OMHA Juvenile Tier
1 second round playdown series.
After sweeping the Hespeler Shamrocks in three straight games in the first round of the Juvenile Tier 1 OMHA playdowns, the Ingersoll Carmeuse Lime Express Juvenile set out to face the powerful Woolwich Wildcats who finished in second place with 27 points in the regular season, one point behind the New Hamburg Huskies. Ingersoll finished the regular season in sixth place in the eleven team Beechey Juvenile League with 21 points with a 9 win, 7 loss and 3 ties record.
Heading into the best of five or six point series with Woolwich, Ingersoll head coach Ken Zegers and his coaching staff preached to the team that they needed to be very disciplined and pay great attention to defensive zone coverage. They could not afford to give a strong Woolwich power play unit additional power play opportunities with undisciplined penalties which had been an issue at various times throughout the regular season.
From the outset on Saturday night, it was obvious every player bought into the coaching staff’s message. The Express came out with all engines firing in the first period. Ingersoll would open the scoring 52 seconds into the game when Austin Wallace would fire a wrist shot past the Woolwich goalie with midget call up Parker Hodgson getting an assist on the goal. Some hard work and perseverance by Christian Johnston entering the Woolwich zone would pay off as Christian would score the game’s second goal with 5:15 remaining in the first period with assists from Tanner Gray and Cooper Gordon-Lindsey. The Express would cap off a very strong first period by forcing a turnover in the Woolwich zone. The puck would find it’s way on to Parker Hodgson’s stick in the high slot who would spin and fire a low wrist shot between a surprised Woolwich goalie’s legs with 2:04 left in the period. Ingersoll would end the first period with a 3-0 lead.
The second period would see lots of end to end action in a highly entertaining period. Both teams would have two power play opportunities but neither team were able to capitalize. For Ingersoll, some strong penalty killing by forwards Clayton Hammond, Ryan Cooper, Hayden Snyders, Carter Franklin and Eric Savoie and the defensive corps of Kyle Rachar, Maxx Shelton, Tanner Gray, Brodie Sclater and Nathan Graham along with some timely saves by Ryan Calder would keep the Wildcats at bay. At the other end, Ryan Cooper was denied on a breakaway that would have extended Ingersoll’s lead. Despite all the scoring opportunities, the second period would be scoreless.
Heading into the third period, it was critical that Ingersoll maintain the disciplined play but still remain aggressive on the forecheck while playing smart in the defensive zone. And that is exactly what the team did. Ingersoll would find itself shorthanded only once during the period on what was a questionable slashing call. However, Ingersoll successfully killed off this penalty. Late in the game, an unfortunate turnover at the Woolwich blue line would lead to the Wildcats scoring their only goal of the game on a shorthanded breakaway with 1:20 left in the third to break the shutout bid. Despite this goal, Ingersoll goalie Ryan Calder was very strong in the Ingersoll net.
Head coach Ken Zegers was very happy with the team’s effort as evidenced by his post game comments. Zegers commented “Awesome effort by the boys tonight. Calder was in a zone and played great. Everyone contributed and bought into a more disciplined game plan with more attention to our own zone. Pretty happy with the effort”.
The series resumes Sunday March 1st in Woolwich (Elmira arena). The remainder of the series schedule is as follows:
Sunday March 1 Ingersoll at Woolwich (Elmira) 4:30 pm
Saturday March 7 – Woolwich at Ingersoll 8:30 pm
Sunday March 8 – Ingersoll at Woolwich (Elmira) 4:30 pm (if necessary)
Tuesday March 10 – Woolwich at Ingersoll 9:00 pm (if necessary)
Wednesday March 11 - Ingersoll at Woolwich (Elmira) 6:30 pm (if necessary)
Next action for Ingersoll will be on Saturday night (Feb 29) at 8:45 pm when the Express will host the Tavistock Titans in a Beechey League A Division playoff game.