Feb 17, 2020 | Kevin Waddell | 456 views
Playoffs Underway for the PeeWee LL Team
On Saturday evening, your PeeWee LL #1 team travelled to Southampton to begin their playoffs against a new opponent, the Saugeen Shores #1 LL team.
The players were full of questions regarding the new opponent. The message to the team was simple. Be ready, play our game because they won’t give it to us.
Maybe it was playoff jitters or the extra days off, but the message didn’t quite sink in right away.
With the drop of the puck the boys were surprised by the fight in our opponent. Aggressive pushes on the forecheck and controlling the play left our lads a bit puck struck. Sloppy puck control around our goal had the Storm up on us 2 goals within 30 seconds just over halfway through the first.
The deficit may have shocked our players into realizing, if they wanted this, they would have to go get it.
Even down by 2 there was a definite shift in moment as the seconds ticked down in the first. That team work their crazy coach keeps barking about was starting to come into play along side the all important aggressive forecheck.
During our brief gathering at the bench between the periods, they were reminded of that.
The second period was underway and the lads went to work. The forecheck was in gear and the passing took charge. Just under 3 minutes in The Great 88 dug out the puck and fed it to a wide open Cole L who rifled home our first goal.
Nothing came of a power play opportunity after that and the battle went back and forth. With Nick P helping out the forwards, it kept the legs fresh upfront as the period wore on.
With 5:37 left in the period and two dull skates, Austin L beat out the Saugeen defender and tucked in the tying goal.
Saugeen responded a minute later jamming away at a tight rebound.
The aggressive forecheck of Austin L on dull skates left the Great 88 open to even things up with 2 mins in the period.
All tied up, the lads were sweating and grinning ear to ear. They were having fun and could tell this was far from over. 3 goals in a period all from great cycling and forecheck made them proud.
Why do we skate so much at practice? Well as the third got underway, our endurance from all that work payed off.
As the 3rd got underway, the Saugeen group began to tire and the majority of the play stayed in their end.
The Saugeen goalie made some amazing saves to keep things even late into the third. With just over 6 mins to go, Cole put us ahead after great work by Lucas and Nick down low.
A minute later Cole finished up the natural Hatty and put us ahead by two on a nice pass from Nick.
A solid, never say die, effort from every player.
From Owen W making some amazing saves of his own, to Braden, Anderson, Daemyn, Ryan and Owen M holding down the fort on defence, and the miss matched lines of Sean, Leithan, Nick, Kaden, Lucas, Cole and Austin playing havoc with their defenders, it was a team effort through and through. Great job lads!!!!