Hockey, the game of 3 periods.
It was a rematch against the Hanover Falcons #2 squad.
After a gutsy small squad played an amazing game against the other Hanover team a week before, hopes were high heading into tonight's game.
With the return of Anderson G from an extended vacation, our defensive core was whole again. With Sean W away for the weekend, Owen M did a great job stepping up on to the wing.
The Icedogs struggled in our own end, with many turnovers that allowed the Hanover squad to keep the pressure on. Just 4 minutes into the first, Hanover tallied their first goal, taking advantage of Owen W who was stuck deep in his net. Hanover struck again only a minute later, going ahead 2-0
Owen W did his best to keep Hanover off the scoreboard for the rest of the period. Nick P took advantage of a few open gaps and rushed up the ice to take matters into his own hands only to be fended off by the Hanover defence. Moments later, Daemyn E did the same trying to get his squad on the board.
At the end of the second we were down 2-0
As the puck dropped in the second, The Icedog coaches made a move to shuffle up the lines. With Lucas S centering a line with Kaden C and Leithan B, things got underway. Just a minute and a half into the second, Lucas S received a sweet pass from Kaden C, into the slot and fired in our first tally of the game.
This woke up the boys a bit and the defence and forwards started to get to work. A few rocket shots from Daemyn E from the blue line hit their mark but were kicked aside or deflected wide.
Nick P tried a few more times to get things going by working his way end to end sometimes battling 3 Hanover players at once.
With only 2:47 left in the 2nd, Hanover took advantage of a late change and went ahead 3-1
With a break for a flood of the ice, the coaches tried pumping up the wary squad to get the troops rallied.
As the 3rd period began, the battle was all in our own end for the first half of the period. As the 7:00 minute mark rolled around and many chances smothered by Owen W in the pipes, the boys began to grind away.
Cole L and his line mates of Austin L and Owen M, began pushing back against the now tiring Hanover squad.
The play was taken back into the Hanover end for the most of the remainder of the game. As the clock ticked away, Ryan P, Anderson G, Daemyn E and Nick P did everything they could to keep it in the Hanover end.
Nick P sent a long hard shot in after another end to end. That kept the squad of Lucas P, Leithan B and Kaden C deep in the Hanover end where many attempts were made to even things up.
The clock was not in our favour. With only 2 seconds left on the clock, Austin L managed to squeak one in to bring us within 1.
3-2 final.
With wins come glory, with losses come lessons.
Tonight's lesson was the game of hockey has 3 periods to play.
Work to do at practice, but the positive take away from tonights game is that our focus on skating and endurance is really starting to show late in these games.