Mar 18, 2022 | Rich McNeil | 271 views
GM#1 - Warriors Tournament - Express start on a winning note
The U15 Rep team, sponsored by Louie's, made their way down to St Catherines to participate in the Garden City Warriors Tournament. With two games Friday, and two Saturday, this is a great opportunity for the boys to chip off the rust, and get prepared for their Semi Final series vs the Ayr Flames starting next week.
Game 1 was set for Friday afternoon at 2pm at the Seymour Hannah arena, as we were set to play the Collingwood Blues. Starting in net for the Express was Tanner Belore, who looked ready to slam the door shut on their opponents.
The boys got off to a cautious start as we were feeling out our competition. The Express moved the puck well, but Collingwood probably had an edge on the play. We were outshot 9-6 in the first, but Belore kept his composure, and seemed to be able to track the puck well. The boards were extremely lively, as many pucks seemed to come out of nowhere, at both ends of the ice. The Express were assessed two separate minor penalties in the first frame, but the penalty kill did their job, and anything that got by the defenders, Belore was all over. The period ended scoreless, as 15 minutes was put up on the clock for the start of the second frame.
The Express played a very strong 2nd frame, dominating the play for long periods of time. However our attempts to score were thwarted time and time again. We would finally get a power play late in the frame, and the boys went to work cycling the puck in the offensive zone. A pass by Westin Matsumoto to a ready Colton Macpherson, caught the Blues netminder as Macker's shot was just high enough that he was not able to corral the rebound, and Eli North was able to slide the puck through the goalies legs and give us the lead. We would get another chance at the power play once again, but were unable to bury another one. But the boys had the lead, heading to the third.
The boys really tightened things down in the third, and even though the scoring chances by us were minimized, we were winning many of the one on one battles, as it was easy to see the boys were ready to work for this until the final buzzer. Belore shut the door, and the Express opened the tournament with a 1-0 victory. A little rest and relaxation to be had by the boys as we await an 8:45 pm game vs the Petes from Peterborough, who also were successful in their first contest, a 4-3 win over Loyalist. Good Luck tonight Express. Keep the train rolling.