A lot has happened since my last write up on January 31, with
some things that do not deserve to mention; fortunately, there are some positive
things that I am ecstatic to outline in this season review.
Our first good piece of news was our Wolfpack enjoyed back
to back wins when we faced the Hespeler Shamrocks 2 team. Our two game series vs. the Shamrocks started
off when we hosted the first exhibition game at our Brant Sports Complex that
earned our team a 5-2 win.
Congratulations to Wyatt for scoring our first and fifth goal in that game, while Calvin earned a ‘Gordie Howe hat trick' with a goal, assist and a match penalty. Ben Whiting earned two points for our team with a goal and an assist. Kolby earned the game winning goal, his first goal of the season, that was assisted by our substitute goaltender Alex Roswell. Finally, Abby and Liam, our AP player, each earned an assist on a goal in the game.
The Hespeler Shamrocks hosted the second game of our 2 game exhibition series two days later, which ended up being a very close matched game that saw both teams having both power play advantages and penalty killing disadvantages. The first period was back and forth playing and both benches were pacing to see who would earn the first goal of the game. Calvin answered the call with only 20 seconds remaining in the period as he received a pass from Wyatt and netted a game leading goal.
At the end of the second period everyones’ ears were ringing on account of the whistle calls for both teams penalties, this slowed the pace of the game; fortunately, this didn’t impact Fletcher’s game as he was in front of the net to slap in the puck from a two way pass that started from Ben W followed by Calvin. Although, the Shamrocks returned with a goal to close the second period our team held tight for the full third period and a big thanks to our substitute goalie Michael MacKenzie for shutting down all final shots to earn our team a win, congrats to Fletcher for the game winning goal.
Exhibition series with Caledonia Thunder LL3
Our Wolfpack participated in an additional two game exhibition series with Caledonia Thunder LL3 with Caledonia hosting the first game at their centre. This late night Wednesday game prevented a handful of our players to be unable to play which left only 9 players to represent our team. Yes, our first period performance was a little ... ‘disturbing’; fortunately, Ben W reminded our players that we were still in this game by making an impressive goal after receiving assists from Owen and Fletcher to earn his play. In between periods, coach Doug Green reigned in our players and provided some needed advice and new game plan that led our team to new ground.
In the second period, our players demonstrated their no give up attitude; although, being down 4-1 they increased their game and matched a goal for every goal that their opponents scored to even the playing field. All in consideration for the number of players we had that faced a full 3 line Caledonia team, I must admit overall we played a great game with our players being exhausted by the end of it. I can attest to that as it was a quiet ride home for me as Spencer was sound asleep in the front seat, not much time to discuss or recap the game with him.
A few days later we hosted Caledonia at our Brant Sports Complex for a rematch, although, this game we had a better first period with not letting up any goals and our luck was even better as Ben C earned the first goal of the game for our team from an assist from Ben W. Unfortunately, Caledonia Thundered through in the second period with 3 goals to regain the lead and a fourth goal in the third period to secure their win over our Wolfpack.
Recap of the last league games
In the month of February our team participated in six games, 3 home and 3 away games. We faced Port Dover and Langton each on two occasions and single games with Tillsonburg and our other Paris LL3 team.
Our closest game of all 6 games was against Port Dover where we witnessed both teams keeping at pace with one another and if it wasn’t for a 30 seconds remaining lucky goal from the Pirates we would have had a tie game. Great job by Owen, Fletcher and Jackson for earning goals this game and Ben W, Ben C and Spencer for assists credits.
Two days later our players returned to our home ice to face our Paris Midget LL3 team which proved to be another evenly matched game, just like our previous match with this team that ended in a 2-2 tie game.
Calvin wasted no time to score in this game and earned the first goal and put our team in the lead with an assist from Ben C. LL3 fought back and clenched a goal with 43 seconds on the clock to return the score to a tie.
Into the second period LL3 scored a goal but they had a shortfall lead as Calvin earned an unassisted goal to prove that our team was not backing down; unfortunately, LL3 answered with a goal to reclaim the lead to end the second period in their favour.
Sometime in the game on a rush towards our net Ben W made a challenging back check play that found him, an LL3 player and our goalie Ethan tangled up in the net. What we would later learn is that Ethan suffered a concussion and a neck injury that would put him out of commission for close to two months. Somehow Ethan was able to put aside his pain and disorientation and finish the game for his team, it is fair to say that this affected Ethan’s ability to play and proved advantageous to our opponents; however, Ethan still managed to finish strong with only allowing one final goal in the third period.
As the news unfolded about Ethan’s injury and inability to play net for our team, we were left with no other option than to suit up another player, Jack proved invaluable as he volunteered to replace Ethan. Incredibly, Jack had not played goalie in over 10 years, was not able to get in a practice and using Ethan’s equipment he jumped into net with a few hours notice to face Langton Leafs. After stumbling a few steps during warm up and into the start of the first period, Jack reclaimed his goalie stance and intuition and proved to be the player of the game.
Jack committed to playing goalie for the duration of Ethan’s injury which would see him playing out a total of four final playoff games. This included a game in Port Dover that ended in a 6-1 loss, congrats to Wyatt for scoring our team’s sole goal, assisted by Ben W. Our second to last season game was a late game in Tillsonburg that was our team’s worst defeat of 11-1, congrats to Spencer for scoring our only goal with assists from Owen and Ben C.
Our team’s final game was a home game against Langton Leafs where our team redeemed ourselves with a better performance from our previous game, outstanding job by our Captain Calvin for earning two goals for our team with his first goal unassisted and the second with an assist by Owen. Although, the game ended in favour of Langton 5-2, our players managed to play a respectable style of game.
Syl Apps tournament
Great news! Ethan has received full clearance to return to our team to play goaltender for our team just in time as we enter our hometown Syl Apps tournament where we will play New Hamburg Huskies 2, Richmond Hill Kings and Durham Crusaders 2.
Go Wolfpack Go!