Mar 19, 2022 | Rich McNeil | 371 views
GM# 3 - Warriors Tournament - Express survive a scare in St.Catharines.
Well after a decent start on Friday with a win and a tie, the U15 Rep squad faced off against the West Grey Warriors. The Warriors had a 1 - 1 record going into this contest. Starting between the pipes for the Express was Tanner Belore, who had shutout the Blues from Collingwood to open the tournament yesterday.
The boys started out hot as Kolten Winkworth opened the scoring only 1:20 in, as the boys cycled the pucked to Kolten on the right point, and let a nice wrist shot which cleanly beat the goalie. Assist were given to Westin Matsumoto and Colton Macpherson. Less than two minutes later, Matsumoto extended the lead to two, with a nice finish going upstairs, after Jeremy Stiles got a shot off. The Express were well on their way, and the period ended at 2-0, but the boys clearly dominated the period.
The 2nd was a totally different story, as our opponents scored three in frame to take the lead. Even though the boys dominated most of the play, just a couple of lapses in our play were capatalized on by West Grey.
The third period started with Kian Brown in the box, and the Warriors took full advantage as a shot from the point was redirected by Cole McNeil's skate, and slipped past Belore, to give West Grey a 4-2 lead, with 14 minutes to play.
Cue the comeback.....
Eli North would get us within one less than a minute later, as Josh Robles laid a perfect pass on the tape, and North released a bullet by the netminder. The Express continued to press as they took over the game. Robles would tie the contest, as Eli returned the favour of a nice pass to Josh, who blasted the puck by the reeling Warriors squad. There was no playing for a tie here as we continued to come at them in waves and finally Jeremy Stiles found the back of the net with one of his patented wrist shots, and gave Ingersoll the lead back with about 4 minutes to go. The Warriors did push hard near the end, but a huge pad stop off the draw by Belore preserved the win, and gave us a chance to secure a spot in tomorrow's semi final contest if we have a strong finish tonight against Halton Hills. Best of luck boys, and congratulations on such an exciting comeback.