After a two game losing set back, our LL4 Wolfpack were
ready to turn the tables on their next opponents and earn some wins to close
off the first half of the season, before our holiday break and the start to the
second half of the season.
If our team was going to live up to their intentions they
would have to play some good hockey as they were playing Tillsonburg Tornadoes
2 and Langton Leafs 2, both who earned spots in the A division for the second
half of the season.
On Saturday our team made their final road trip for 2018 as they drove off to meet the Tornadoes 2 in Tillsonburg for a rare late afternoon 5:15pm Saturday game. Parents were the most happy about this rescheduled day and time of game, from our original Thursday 9:50pm game time.
Josh Racette assisted Josh Hicks with earning the first goal of the game with 40 seconds remaining in the first period to put Paris on the score clock, at the same moment when the Tornadoes penalty ended, so you can somewhat say that it was a powerplay goal.
The Wolfpack continued into the second period and different lines were credited for two more goals for our team, with the second goal of the game as a three way play starting with Kaleb passing to Evan who set Fletcher up for his 3rd goal of the season. Lucas with a little over a minute in play in the second period earned an unassisted goal to widen the lead of the game to 3-0 for Paris.
Paris found themselves in trouble in the third period with a number of penalties that reduced our scoring chances and put our team on the defensive stance; fortunately, it didn’t hold back Josh Hicks with scoring a fourth and final goal for our team after receiving a pass from Deryk with 31 seconds before the end of the game.
Congratulations to Caleb for earning his third shutout this season.
Langton Leafs 2 game
The next day our players returned to our arena, to play against the Langton Leafs 2. Most players were still buzzing from their win, while most equipment were still wafting from the last big game.
The Leafs had an opening impressive goal as they created a 2 on 1 rush that finished with a cross ice pass that resulted in a one touch deflection goal. This type of goal forced our players to quickly take notice and discuss how to avoid allowing this type of set up to recur again in this game.
Reviewing the score sheet the Langton Leafs resembled a bunch of lumberjacks by the slashing and hooking calls they were given amongst other penalties; unfortunately, our Wolfpack players ended up being just as guilty with an equal string of penalties that seemed to intensify in the 3rd period.
The Leafs did a good job of killing penalties, even when they were down two players at the bottom of the first period and prevented any scoring chances for our Paris group, allowing them to hold the lead to the end of the first period.
Before the start of the second period, Jaden would be seen leaving our bench to return to the dressing room, dealing with a lower body injury from a game against his high school teachers. Evan would soon follow him to the locker room half way through the second period, as he was dealing with a knee injury, both injury setbacks for our team.
Our bench was looking very sparse compared to the Langton bench who had, what seemed like double the number of players than our team. Our Paris boys carried on with their winning intentions and growing appetite, which was partly to blame due to Manager Greg Adam’s friendly wager that he would buy our team Harvey’s for dinner if they won this game against his former hometown of Langton, where he grew up.
With just 29 seconds into the second period Kaleb scored our team’s first goal to tie up the game which was assisted by Josh Racette who made a fancy, behind the back drop pass for Kaleb to pick up and shoot on net. Much of the second period was a tossup between both teams play; unfortunately, Langton would get a chance to redeem the lead with a goal with 4:34 on the clock.
During the second period, Cameron took a shot, in an attempt to clear the puck from our zone, and sent the puck down the full ice, hitting the back boards which bounced off and hit the backside of Langton’s goaltenders pads and directing the puck into the net. Our cheering was short lived as the referee waved off the goal due to icing.
Wolfpack would break the game lead, after 3 ½ minutes into the 3rd period, unexpectedly while on a 2 man penalty kill. Spencer was trying to force the puck to be held in the Leafs zone and as a result of a poor pass, Spencer intercepted the pass and took a quick shot on net. The goalie saved the shot; however, the rebound sent the puck spiraling up and over his shoulder, unbeknownst to the net minder, offering Paris to tie up the game.
Josh Hicks would become the deciding figure in this game as he scored an unassisted goal as he patiently deeked out the Leafs goalie. Paris would have to ride out this lead in the game for another 10 long minutes in the game. This would not be easy and a few times we came close to slipping onto the hold of our lead, including a slap shot from Langton, with that, oh so close crossbar pinging sound, that could be heard reverberating throughout the arena.
In fact, all totaled up Caleb saved an impressive 23 shots alone in the 3rd period to keep the Wolfpack in the game and secure our 7th league win.
What was certain was the boys orders at Harveys with 10 players taking manager Greg Adam’s wager seriously as they all headed off, directly after the game to Harveys to claim their free meal that they played so hard to earn. This left Greg asking each player, ‘do you want fries with that win?’
Stay tuned for the B division schedule for the second half of the season to come out in the coming days. We will have games against: Burford Coyotes, Ingersoll Express 1, Ingersoll Express 2, Langton Leafs 1, Paris LL3, Port Dover Pirates, Simcoe Warriors and Tillsonburg Tornadoes 1.
Congratulations to Kaleb Marin for being this week's Player of the week, as he earned a goal and an assist over two games.
Go Wolfpack Go!!!
Kevin Noseworthy