Feb 10, 2014 | Dave Duncan | 264 views
Sailors Split Weekend WOAA Games
This weekend, the Marcc Apparel Bantam AE Sailors opened their WOAA Gregg Division playoffs. On Saturday, they hosted the Mt Forest Rams, a rep team that normally plays in the same division as our rep team.
The Sailors came out a little tentative, and Tanner was forced to hold the fort for the first few minutes. Mt Forest scored on 2 redirected shots, 2 minutes apart, and the boys found themselves down 2-0 quickly. The Sailors regrouped, and realized they could skate with the Rams. Only a minute after falling behind by two, Mitchell pinched in at the blue line, picked up the loose puck, and fired a snap shot past the Mt Forest goalie assisted by Noah. The first period ended with Mt Forest holding a 2-1 lead.
In the second period, you could see the Sailors had found their legs, and the tide had turned. The boys were using their speed to pressure the Ram defenders. With just under four minutes remaining in the frame, Kody grabbed the puck in the corner and shot it toward the front of the net. With Kyle battling hard out front, the puck took a fortuitous bounce off the Mt Forest defenseman, and the game was tied. Both teams had some chances in the next few minutes, but the second ended 2-2.
Between periods, Coach Brown reminded the Sailors that hard work wins games, and to keep the fore-check pressure on. The boys started the third on the power play, and quickly took advantage. Dwyer fed a nice pass across the blue line to Kody, who fired a hard, low shot at the net. Braeden got his stick on Kody's shot, and deflected the puck back between the goalie's legs, to give the Sailors their first lead of the game 3-2. Only 20 seconds later, Daniel passed the puck to Liam, who was cruising down the left boards. Liam carried the puck around the Ram's net, and fed a beautiful pass out front to Noah, who made no mistake, putting the Sailors up by two. Tanner came up with a spectacular glove save mid-way through the period, to keep the Sailor lead at 4-2. The Sailors went into shut down mode from then on, and took the first round robin game and two points.
Sunday the Sailors were home facing the West Grey Rep team. With Tanner at BCH for the start of the game, helping the Rep team, the Sailors turned to Kyle P to help them out. The Sailors didn't have the jump they showed the previous day, but after the penalty killers worked hard, holding West Grey in their own end during a questionable penalty, it looked like they may be able to pull it together. Kyle was strong as usual, and the first period ended scoreless. A minute into the second period, a bad bounce sent a West Grey player in on a breakaway. Dwyer hustled back, making a nice diving effort and got his stick on the shot, but bad luck prevailed, and it deflected up and over Kyle to give West Grey a 1-0 lead. A minute later, another bad bounce had West Grey up 2-0. Tanner had arrived from Clinton, and went in to see if this would change the flow of the game. Unfortunately, the Sailors took another questionable penalty, and this time West Grey took advantage on the power play. With the Sailors reeling, West Grey scored another and the second period ended 4-0. The Sailors started the third period short-handed, and again the penalty killers did their job, with Tanner flashing the glove to help. The boys had a much better third period, finally getting some shots on the West Grey net, but even after finally getting their first power play (with two minutes remaining), they couldn't close the gap and lost 4-0.
The Marcc Apparel Bantam AE Sailors are in Monkton tonight, facing Elma Logan in their third WOAA round robin game. Next Saturday they travel to Durham to face West Grey before heading to Mildmay Sunday for their final OMHA round robin game against South Bruce. On February 23rd they are in Mt Forest, and then their final WOAA round robin game is Saturday March 1st, when they host Elma Logan at 3:30 at the YMCA.