On a cold, wet and blistery Tuesday night the PeeWee LL#1 team travelled to Hanover to take on the PeeWee Falcons #2 squad with a 6:00pm start.
Although eager to play in just their second game of the season, things around the Hanover arena were a bit off. With an official coming in late, and the home team not in possession of their home jerseys, the start was delayed as the home team scrambled to put on blue pinnies to differentiate the two squads dressed in red.
Once that was all sorted the teams took to the ice, 10 minutes behind the scheduled start.
At about 80% healthy, Owen W took stance between the pipes for your Icedogs, after the 24hr bug had knocked him down the day before. Warned about the big ice and Hanover, the boys knew they were in for a tilt.
The 1st period started with both squads finding their legs and gauging their opponents with some back and forth action up and down the ice.
Half way through the period, Cole L took after the Hanover defence low in their end. After coming out with the puck he fed a beauty pass out to Kaden C all alone out front of the Hanover net and buried the puck into the twine.
This woke up the Hanover squad and after many failed attempts to beat Owen W, on a few breaks, they finally tied things up with a 1:52 left in the first.
All thoughts were on going into the 2nd tied at 1 a piece, however a speedy end to end rush from Hanover left one player all alone, beating Owen W on the glove side. Heading to the second we were down by 1
After a pump up speech during the break from the bench, the boys ventured out into the 2nd looking for the equalizer. It only took 13 seconds. After a scrum in front of the net, Kaden C and Cole L dug for the puck and it popped out to Sean W who tucked it into the net. Tied up 2-2
Missing Anderson G on Defence, Daemyn E, Nick P, Owen M and Nick P, did their best to ward off wave after wave of fast skating Falcons in our own end. Owen W did what he could to ward off any further chances of goals for the rest of the period.
Heading into the third, things looked promising, but we couldn't seem to get the right bounce on the puck. Hanover came out guns a blazing and took the lead only a minute into the third.
Cole L would have nothing of the sort and 3 minutes later he tied things up after chasing his own rebound after a blistering low shot.
Not to be set on their heals, Hanover took advantage of a late change and went ahead again by 1.
Just two minutes later, Hanover would tuck in an ugly rebound in front of our net going ahead by 2.
I think the big ice and short one defence began to take its tole as the Hanover team kept it a tight affair in our own end. This went on for the majority of the period until Cole L, picked up the puck from Sean W and burst into the Hanover end, bringing us to within one.
Lucas S, Austin L and Leithan B did what they could to get on the scoreboard and keep things in order in our own end, but they couldn't find the time and space to send it home. End result was a game that the scoreboard could have gone in favour to either team.
We should have a fully healthy Owen W in net for our next game versus the other Hanover squad and the knowledge we learned on the big ice on Tuesday will be fresh in our players minds.