After a challenging season our team settled in at the mid-point
of the C division of the Bantam Grand River Local league playoff division. Our team opened up the playoffs tonight with
a home game against the Woolwich Wildcats, the first of eight scheduled
games. Since, there are six teams in our
division we will play each team once, as well as, will face both the Ayr and
Tavistock teams for a second game.
Before the game, there was a bit of scrambling and quick thinking with setting up our line up, as we were dealing with the remaining suspension for Spencer and an ill Evan Scott. Fortunately, our AP players Liam Gaukel #5 and Connor Hardie #3 were quick to answer our call for help. With two strong AP defenceman, we made the decision to move Jack up to assume the left wing on our 2nd forward line to work with Evan Shipp on centre and Austin Koehler on right wing.
We had it all worked out that our new defenceman would play with our first forward line and allow our veteran defenceman of Eli Stowe and Liam McAlister to play with our second forward line. This played out well in theory for ... 8 seconds into the game, until we received a tripping penalty which offset our lines not only during the penalty kill but for most of the game. This tripping penalty turned out to be our one and only penalty against our team that was served by our AP player Liam Gaukel. Our team executed our penalty kill line and prevented any goals from occurring while we played shorthanded.
Returning to the play from the penalty box, Liam wasted no time in making up for lost time by supporting his affiliated team by putting pressure on the Woolwich Wildcats by defending our net and setting up some great forward plays, working closely with his fellow Pee Wee teammate, Connor Hardie.
Our forwards played hard and earned some outstanding plays as a result of taking a more offensive strategy and positioning themselves in clear view, high up the ice to close the gap to our opponents net. This competitive thinking earned every forward player some excellent break outs or breakaways, where they handled the puck longer in this game than in many recent games. In addition, this allowed us to increase the amount of shots to directly hit on net, as opposed to previous games where our shots were stopped short of the net by our opponent players putting their bodies in way of our shots. Although, our forwards made some hard plays only Gavin was rewarded with the single goal of the game. Our coaching staff were equally impressed with the start of some great passing plays, amongst our forwards. With a little more practice our team will be sure to perfect and execute in our remaining games of the playoffs that will guarantee some positive results.
Our regular defencemen Eli and Liam were key players in tonight’s game having never played on the same line before they quickly adapted to each other’s style and level of play to make their line work well with one another. Liam was especially critical in keeping our puck in our opponents zone and wound up with his slap shot to challenge their goalie and offer some deflection and rebound opportunities for our forwards. Eli managed to do what he does best by skating hard throughout the game and keeping Woolwich forwards away from our front of net, forcing them and the puck to the corners or turning them down outright from any chance of a breakaway.
As always, our goalie Ethan came ready to play extremely well in our net, making some incredible stops and saves and didn’t let up even, at times, when he was challenged with countless rebounds and attempted deeks, he stayed on his game plan and finished the game strong.
Overall, a respectful effort by our team of 10 skaters who skated a third longer and harder than the Wildcats who came with a full bench of 14 skaters and 2 goalies. This game, for a number of our players, was even more difficult since they are battling colds, flus and illnesses, as such, I was impressed by how much they were capable of achieving considering the circumstances.
In closing, I wanted to send a shout out to all of our team’s distant families and friends who are reading our game reviews from afar. This includes my parents and Spencer’s grandparents from Chateauguay, Qc, yes hometown of Corey Crawford, two time Stanley cup winner and goaltender for Chicago Blackhawks. Many thanks for all of our fans both near and far for your ongoing support and well wishes, please note if you are in the mood for a road trip why not consider coming for a visit to take in some of our remaining playoff games.
See you next this Saturday, January 30/16 at 4:15pm for our next playoff game in St. George against the Generals.
Go Wolfpack Go!