Our Paris Midget LL4 team had a busy week, playing 4 games
in 7 days and performed well earning 3 points to push our way up the league
standing ladder, nearing the mid-mark.
The first of the four games was against our centre’s LL1
team; this 8:20pm Friday night game allowed many of our players to be available
for the game, even if it meant finishing work at 8pm and rushing over to suit
up to play.
Both teams were psyched to play against one another, as many friends and former team mates were lining up to face each other in this game. Although, LL1 were sitting at double the points than our LL4 team, our team paired up well against Paris’ top seeded team and our players performed well against Plumstead’s squad.
In the first period, both teams battled hard and rushes from both teams on each of the goaltenders were viewed with some fantastic saves from both net minders. Both benches were holding their breaths and coaches were pacing, eagerly waiting for the first goal of the game that was credited to Josh Hicks from our team as he carried the puck in and deeked out the goalie to put LL4 in the lead. Cameron Hussey and Kaleb Marin congratulated Hicks on his goal, while Josh high fived Hussey and Marin on a great two way assist, respectively.
Entering the second period, similar to the first period, much of the first part of this period were back and forth plays between both teams, it was only at the 3:31 minute mark when the next goal of the game was called as LL1 earned their first goal of the game, tying up the game at 1-1.
Our LL4 players shrugged off this goal and resumed their game. Not less than 3 minutes later, Josh Hicks drove in from the right side of the ice with a defender barreling in on him from the left side of the ice, as Josh’s eyes were fixed on the defender, he released a quick, unsuspecting wrist shot to the top corner of the net, psyching out the goalie. Returning to the bench Josh fist punched Deryk on a great assist that lead him to this goal and putting our team back in the lead. Unfortunately, this lead was short lived as LL1 with just 15.5 seconds holding on the clock scored their second goal of the game, returning the game to a tie. However, this goal was disputed by our goalie and players on the ice citing goalie interference in the play; unfortunately, the referee stood by his call.
With one remaining period in the game both teams were playing a cat and mouse game, each chasing after a winning goal(s); however, the way the game was going with back to back goals between teams, it was hard to say how the end to this game was going to play out. For the first time in the game LL1 scored first, offering them their first lead in the game at the 4:42 minute mark; fortunately, 37 seconds later a 3 way play set up by Kaleb to Josh H. to Jonah who scored LL4’s 3rd goal of the game.
The intensity of the game, following this goal, proved costly in the third period as penalties were being called, while other penalties were waved off that irritated both benches. An error on the timekeepers, allowing Spencer out of the penalty box with a second standing in his penalty, lead him to returning to the box to serve an additional 2 minute penalty, even though he was only skating over to his team bench and not joining in on the play. These chains of events, changed the mood of the game and complicated any final scoring chances and our teams goal ended up being the final goal of the game, closing down both teams efforts to win, leaving each team with 1 point for a final tied game.
Port Dover Game
Three days later, our LL4 team were back on the ice, visiting Port Dover to play the Pirates, upon arriving to the arena, we learned that there would be an hour delay in the start of our game due to the game before ours starting an hour late. This allowed some of our players to head out to get dinner and be back for game time.
I don’t know if it was the Lake Erie fresh air or the pickerel that had the Hunks boys on top of their game, as our goalie Caleb had a spectacular game, which led him to a perfect game, earning his second shutout this season. Unfortunately, this performance came with a bit of a cost, as he would injure his elbow in the process, forcing him to sit out the next game to recover. Brother, Jonah equally had a great game earning 3 points in the game with two goals and an assist to help his team with a 4-0 win over the Pirates.
The game started off well with a 3 way play, starting with a pass from Cameron to Jonah to Josh who found the 5 hole and buried the puck in the net to score first.
Jonah owned the second period as he scored twice with just over a minute apart from each goal. The first goal was perfectly set up by Lucas Cooper who had a sweet little pass between his legs pass to Jonah who was behind the net and reached around and netted a goal.
In perfect déjà vu fashion, Lucas and Jonah who enjoyed their last play decided to recreate this same goal a minute and a ½ later in assistance with Josh Racette who also claimed an assist point along with Lucas to support Jonah with claiming his second goal of the game.
Josh Racette claimed his second assist of the game with a pass to Riley McHutchion who drove in on the Pirates goaltender and scored on the net minder in the final seconds of the game. It should be noted that Port Dover’s Pirates found some wind in their sails in the 3rd period and challenged Caleb the most, all game, with 10 direct shots on net, including a shot at the buzzer that clearly passed over Caleb’s shoulder which didn’t count as the game was called.
Delhi Game
Two days later, our Wolfpack welcomed the Delhi Rockets to our centre; unfortunately, we would be doing this without our goaltender Caleb as he had to sit out a game to rest his elbow. Fortunately, Riley McLelland volunteered to suit up to play goalie for our team, citing he had played goalie years earlier.
Without any practice and using goalie equipment from Caleb, Riley jumped into net to face the Rockets, as he participated in warm up with his team, after a few missteps and stance adjustments, he didn’t look out of place, at all. To the amazement of his teammates and coaches he started the game and shined brilliantly, standing up to some hard shots and was not intimidated by Delhi forwards trying to push the puck in the net, at the whistle. With each play, fine tuning his game to the point that I joked to Caleb, watching rink side, that he is doing so well that he is going to contend well for starting goalie for our team. Caleb was equally impressed and was cheering harder for Riley after each save.
Josh Racette was looking forward to this match, as this was his former team and in good sportsmanship and good fun, he wore his Delhi hockey socks to commemorate his time with the Rockets. However, it seemed that Josh had a moment of confusion at one point of the game when it looked like he shot on our own net, in an attempt to clear the puck around our net. Fortunately, Riley saw Delhi socks in front of him and didn’t let his guard down and deflected the puck away from his crease.
As I was watching the game in the first period at rink side, Jonah picked up the puck from our zone and was carrying it out, when he was pushed and collided with the boards, as he slowly got up and made his way to the bench, it was clear that he was seriously hurt. As our trainer Greg assessed him, he was quickly ushered to the dressing room to get to the hospital. It would be confirmed by x-ray before the end of the game that he had broke his collar bone and would be out of play for weeks to come, this is a huge set back to our team.
Our team carried on not realizing the intensity of Jonah’s injury and this meant an even smaller bench for our Wolfpack LL4 with 8 skaters and a goalie compared to Delhi’s full bench of 12 skaters and two goalies.
The only whistles called in the first two periods were penalty calls, so starting the third period meant the score was still at 0-0; however, both teams will quickly make up for lost time in scoring as 7 goals will eventually be recorded in the third period. Delhi Rockets will earn 4 goals while Paris will earn 3 goals, a great effort, just short of a tie game.
Great work by Lucas for scoring two goals, Josh Hicks for scoring our third goal of the game and adding two assists to his stats and assists for Cameron, Riley McHutchion and Spencer.
Waterford Game
The next day our team drove out to Waterford to play Wildcat’s LL1, what would turn out to be a high scoring game with a total of 11 goals recorded between both teams.
This made each period a great spectators game with goals being scored by both teams in every period, with much of the game’s score close between both teams.
Congratulations to the following players for the goals in the game:
1. Riley McHutchion (10.5 seconds in first period)
2. Riley McHutchion, assisted by Josh Hicks (8:26 in second period)
3. Lucas Cooper, assisted by Riley McHutchion and Josh Hicks (58.1 in second period)
4. Evan Shipp, assisted by Spencer and Kaled (18.8 in second period)
5. Josh Hicks, assisted by Evan Shipp (11:03 in third period)
Player of the week
Congratulations to Jackson Thibodeau and Jonah Hunks for each being named Player of the Week players for our team, last week.