Hats off to Evan for securing a win for the Wolfpack 3 on the final game of the season, News, Bantam LL3, U15, 2016-2017 (Paris Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2016-2017 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Mar 07, 2017 | kevinn | 668 views
Hats off to Evan for securing a win for the Wolfpack 3 on the final game of the season
Our Bantam Wolfpack 3 team closed out our final league game, similar to our opening league game, with a high scoring win.  Pre-game time, our dressing room was alive with anticipation and good nature fun, as all players were on hand to play our final league game against Simcoe Warriors 1, who ended up achieving 2nd place in the league standings in the A pool.

Going into our final league game, our team was sitting at 7th place in the A pool, behind Tillsonburg Tornadoes 2, so if we wanted to make a difference in the standings we had one last opportunity to do so with a needed win.  However, this was not going to be an easy endeavour since Simcoe 1 had won 9 games, tied 2 games and only lost 3 games in the second half of the season; however, our players were up for the challenge.  The players lived up to the challenge with a big scoring win of 6-4, which moved us up slightly in the standings to 6th place tie with Tillsonburg Tornadoes 2.

Before James, our goaltender, led our team out for the game, we encouraged our players, regardless of the outcome of the game, to simply have some fun.  Since, the result of the game would not make a difference to our team moving on to a semi-final game spot.  If anything, this was a chance for our players to try out some new strategies, clean up our style of play and avoid any injuries. 

Looking back over our season, our team was more fortunate than many other teams with avoiding multiple injuries and suspensions during the season.  Only our captain, Jaden, suffered a major on ice injury with a broken wrist that had him sidelined for 8 games, while Jack missed out of 11 games due to a concussion that happened outside of hockey.  Our coaching staff were equally pleased that our team concluded our season with not a single suspension given out to any of our players.

Our own Jeff Hannah, who we have since nick named the ‘Voice of the Wolfpack,’ opened the game with player introductions to our home fans as they skated out onto the ice after their name was announced.  It was a great way to get our players pumped up and excited about this last league game.

With the drop of the puck both Warriors and Wolfpack delivered a great display of hockey as both goalies were being tested by their opponents.  It was only at the latter half of the first period when the first goal was lit up on the scoreboard with Simcoe claiming the first goal of the game.  However, not 10 seconds later would both teams return to centre ice; fortunately, this time it was on account of Paris scoring, in turn, quickly tying up the game at 1 apiece. 

It would soon become apparent that Evan Shipp was shipshape for this game, as he would eventually score 3 goals in this game, virtually doubling his goal standings in a single game for the year.  His first goal was assisted by his loyal centreman Spencer.  With little time left in the first period Evan wasted no time when he returned to the ice by scoring a second goal of the game that was assisted by Spencer and Ian with just over a minute remaining in the period.  This goal allowed our team to take the lead in the game and it gave our players much needed confidence starting the second period.

Our second period resembled our first period as Simcoe again had the first goal of this period at the mid-mark of the period; however, our Wolfpack would return with two more goals to widen our lead to 4-2.  Outstanding goals by Jaden that was assisted by Evan while a goal by Jackson that was assisted by Ian.

Into the third period both teams were fixated on the net and with immeasurable shots with the sole purpose of scoring, players were challenging themselves with the hope that they would claim the winning goal of the game.  Both the Warriors and the Wolfpack teams scored twice; fortunately, Paris had an earlier lead that supported us with earning the win.  Great goal by Jack that was assisted by Liam and our final goal scored by Evan that was assisted by Oscar which offered Evan a hat trick for the night.  It couldn’t have come on a better night as Evan’s immediate and extended family were at the game to witness his best points game of the season with 3 goals and an assist.

Although, our team missed the short list for the league semi-final games in our A Pool, we do have some comfort to know that our either two Paris Bantam LL1 and LL2 teams did manage to move on to the semi-final games in the A and B pool, respectively.  As such, our team’s coaching staff and players will be wishing our good friends on in these final round games and hoping for a successful outcome.  A final mention to Fletcher for scoring our single goal on our second to last league game against the Paris LL1 team this past Sunday night which was assisted by Jaden and Ian ~ great job boys!

Overall, our Bantam LL3 had a good season in the new Inter Town league with many close games, in fact, 9 of the losses were a close difference of 1 or 2 goals.   While the 90 goals that our players scored, to date, from the season, exhibition and tournament games, five of our players are credited for 67 of these goals while every other player on our team earned points for goals and/or assists that supported our team standings of 11 wins / 13 losses / 5 ties.  An incredible four shutout games was recorded by our goaltender which was a great achievement by James this year, that he will remember for many years to come.

Still more hockey to come with more exhibition games against Cambridge and Woodstock teams before we conclude our year with our hometown Syl Apps hockey tournament from March 31-April 2/17, stay tuned for future updates!