Mar 18, 2022 | Rich McNeil | 305 views
GM#2 - Warriors Tournament - Express battle to a tie vs the Petes
Game 2 in the Garden City Warriors Tournament, had the U15 Rep squad matched up against the Peterbourough Petes. Both teams came off wins to open the tourney earlier in the day, and both were wanting to set themselves up well for the Saturday games. Starting in net for the Express was Jaxon Pinard, who looked zoned in and ready to go.
As we have come accustom to, the boys started a little slower than expected and were pressed hard by the Petes, but some big stops by Pinard early got him to where he needed to be, and the boys started to settle in to a fast paced game. Even though we were ourshot heavily in the first period, we were able to keep the game scoreless through one period.
It was in the second, where we started to see the swing in momentum in favour of the Express. Great individual rushes by several of the Express forwards, were taking their toll on the Petes, who had a hard time playing at the pace we were dictating. However we seem to be on the wrong side of the calls tonight, as the Express took 7 minor penalties tonight, to the Petes two. The PK was spot on tonight as we were able to weather the storm on all occcassions. The Petes would take the lead, on a unfortunate clearing attempt that went awry, and was able to get one past Pinard, but this was going to be the only piece of rubber that got behind him in this contest. As we continued to press, Eli North would finally even the score with a bullet of a shot that the Petes netminder had no chance of stopping. We headed to the third tied at 1-1.
The boys kept the opposition on their toes, as we pressed a bit, but the Petes were not going to be mailing this in, and Pinard was tasked to make a couple of big stops in the final frame to keep us tied. Late in the game, North had a glorious opportunity to give us the lead on the powerplay, but it was not meant to be as it went over the net. The final buzzer sounded and the Express walked away with the point, and a better indication of what it was going to take tomorrow. First tilt is against the West Lake Warriors at 12:45pm. Have a Saturday Express!!