When our Bantam Wolfpack LL3 players hit the ice last night,
it was one of our team’s more lengthy stretches in between games, with our last
game over 10 days earlier. However, even
more of a concern was our late game start of 9:30pm that played on the minds of
our coaching staff. Since we have never
had such a late game start before we wondered how our players would perform at
this time of evening.
As our players arrived to the arena last night, I contemplated making our players run around outside of the arena to give them a good warm up for the game; however, no coach wanted to venture out in the bitter cold and there was the worry of twisting ankles on black ice. In addition, knowing there was a lobby full of Finland girl Ringette players present made coaches realize the added distraction to avoid.
Leaving the dressing room we instructed the players to skate hard in the warm up to better prepare for their long awaited game, citing this as being dependent upon putting a stop to our team’s four game losing streak.
Reviewing our past two games with the Tornadoes revealed that our teams are closely matched with our first match ending in a 2-2 tie and our second game ending in a 3-2 win. Realizing this third game would be another close match, I challenged our players to break the Tillsonburg’s spell and equal up the score between our teams by claiming a win against the Tornadoes 1.
Our game opened up quick in the Wolfpack’s favour as defenceman Liam made a swift pass to Evan who rushed up the puck to the Tornadoes zone and set up Spencer for the first goal of the game in the first thirty seconds of the game. This goal was a great team motivator as our players were on their feet as they came alive with excitement and renewed belief in their team’s potential.
Tillsonburg seemed unfazed by our quick lead and bounced back with a goal of their own a minute later, confirming our projections on this game. We pushed our players harder letting them know that we need to be more aggressive and force our way to the net to score in volume and not sit back on a small lead. Before the end to the second period Hayden passed to Ryan who set up Evan with our team’s second goal of the evening, ending the period in a 2-2 tie.
The Tornadoes 1 made the first point in the second period and held the lead of the game until late in the second period when Spencer earned a second goal of the night that was assisted by our goalie James and second centreman Jaden. This third goal of the night for our Wolfpack was a reassuring message and way to end the second period with another tie of 3-3.
In between periods I encouraged our players to use their speed and play hard for the duration of this 15 minute period; being on home ice we wouldn’t have the worry or surprise about being curfewed in the game. This was a major factor of why we lost, to this same team, when we played at their centre in Tillsonburg when the game was called short with several minutes left on the scoreboard. I believe there was enough time that we could have scored to tie up the game; unfortunately, we suffered a 3-2 loss.
Our third period played out almost identically to our second period with Tillsonburg scoring the first early goal of the period; fortunately, Wolfpack responded with a final goal of the game by Jackson that was set up by Spencer and Fletcher to conclude the scoring and end the game in a 4 to 4 tie.
After the game both teams’ coaches, players and spectators agreed that it was an outstanding matched game and were content with another tie between teams. The only unfortunate news is that this was the last time, in this season, that these two teams will play against one another.
Congratulations to both the Bantam Wolfpack LL1 and the Tillsonburg Tornadoes 1 teams on an outstanding display of clean hockey with only 3 penalties given out all game.