This week we have a couple games against the two clubs battling it out for second place to earn the coveted playoff bye into the semi-finals, the West End Bruins and Thunder Bay Beavers,

Game 23 vs. West End Bruins

Including tournaments, this would be our 6th meeting with the West End Bruins. West End has steadily improved on the year and is now competing for 2nd place with the Beavers in Midget A. In fact, before the game we got to watch South End beat the Beavers which leaves West End a single point behind them. The Bruins have gone on a run of 5-0-5 in their last 10 and actually their last couple losses were in back-to-back dustups with us, so our goal was to bookend their undefeated streak with another couple losses (the first game was the semi-finals in the Elks tournament, and then tonight). Besides, we were also bringing a pretty decent record of 12-0-0 in our last 12 regular season games into this one.

Ice Tilts One Way

Captain Z would notch the only goal for two periods

In the first period, we carried the play beautifully and generated a lot of scoring chances but we couldn’t bury our chances past Bruins goaltender, Alistair Shawinimash. Our captain, John Zurkan, though would carry the puck through the neutral zone, freeze a defender with a fake shot and deke around him, then go in and send a clapper past the goalie for the only goal of the period.

Ice Tilts the Other

We were happy with our play in the first period and felt we should be up a few more goals than just one. The second period, however, was a different story as West End tilted the ice in their favour and Jared “Red” Foulds had to be solid to keep our lead for us.

It Comes Unravelled

Gage: Sickest Hands in Midget A

About five minutes into the third though, Grant Hughes would work the puck to Eric “Donny” Donaldson who’s shot would bounce over to Gage Bechard who’d awkwardly knock in the loose puck to a yawning cage. A little over a minute after that, Kevin “Polish Flow” Janik would place a shot top corner to put us up 3-0. As the period wound down, Kevin and Gage would both get their second goals of the game. First Janik would undress a defenseman and fire a shot on net which the goaltender got a piece of but the puck would flip end over end and float into the net behind him. Not to be out done, Gage “Half Man-Half Amazing” Bechard gathered up a puck while on the penalty kill, undressed one defenseman, undressed a second defenseman, cruised in on the breakaway and lit the lamp (we don’t actually have goal lights) on a deke that only Gage could have pulled off. The bench exploded more than one should for a 5-0 goal.

And even though this game will go down as a 5-0 win, the score truly does not do it justice as it was a 1-0 game for a long time and if not for Jared Foulds’ shutout, could have turned out a lot differently.

Game 24 vs. Thunder Bay Beavers

Next we were on to play Jesse “Blue Pants” Milani’s favourite team to play against, his former club; The Thunder Bay Beavers.

Open the Floodgates

Gordie potted 2 goals in the first

We got off to a good start in the first period as Gordie Gaudette scored on the second shift of the game. Shortly after, Gage Bechard scored a goal on a move reminiscent of his goal against West End the previous game to put us up 2-0. The Beavers would get back in as David Kowalczyk would punch in a puck that was bouncing around feet in the crease. Shortly after that though, Eric “Donny” Donaldson would pot a goal on a nice passing play. In fact, all three of those goals were on passing plays in the slot that the goalie didn’t have much of a chance on. This trend continued as Kevin Janik would score on a one-timer and then Gage Bechard would again catch a pass on the rush and make a nice move to score. 28 seconds after that, David “Money” Evans would bank a shot wide of the net which would pop out on the other side for Gordie Gaudette who’d whack it into the wide open net. 6-1 after the first.

Early in the second period we’d earn a powerplay early. After holding in a puck at the blue line, Cole Colosimo froze his defender by faking the shot then sliding it over to Lucas Bava who fired a shot, that may have deflected off a Beaver in front, for the goal. The Beavers came back with a powerplay goal of their own with Morgan McKay setting up Tyler Maticic. We didn’t manage another goal in the period and on our powerplay, Beavers forward Eric “Army” Armiento fought for a loose puck between two defenseman and sprung himself on a breakaway for a really nice goal. 7-3 after two.

All-Star Donny

Donny "The Playmaker" snips at will

We found ourselves on a long four minute penalty kill and as it was winding down, Eric “Donny” Donaldson poked a puck past a defender at our blue line and raced for the net. Pressured by the defenseman, Eric wound up and slapped the puck top cheese for his second of the game. Then at about the ten-minute mark, Grant Hughes fed a nice cross-ice pass to John Zurkan which put him on the breakaway. John seemed to have forever to look over his options before snapping it top corner. And before the game could end, Gage Bechard fed a puck to Eric “I’m a Playmaker” Donaldson at the side of the net who’d score for the hattrick. 10-3 final.

Current Record: 23-1-0 (46 Points)

The last time we had played the Westfort Rangers, they actually gave us quite a scare as we took a 3-3 tie with them into the third. We ended up winning 5-3 but they played extremely well. The Rangers continued their play going on a run of 2-2-2 in their next 6 games, nipping at the heels of the Fort William Canadiens who currently hold down the final playoff spot.

Getter Done Early

Grant showing off his hand-eye coordination

We started off the game very well as John Zurkan scored just over two-and-a-half minutes in on a play from Gage Bechard. Closing in on the half-way point of the first, we’d work the puck down low in the offensive zone. The Rangers would manage to get a hold of the puck and try to wristshot it down the ice but defenseman Grant Hughes’ lacrosse skills would come into play as knocked the puck out of the air at about waist level with his stick to keep the play alive before Zach Shaw would pass far side to Kevin Janik who’d wrist the puck top corner for the 2-0 lead. Then just over a minute later, Grant would send a low pointshot towards the net which Eric “Donny” Donaldson would deflect in. 3-0 in the first half of the first period. Good start.

Rangers Wake Up

Through the next two periods, the Rangers would play the game that got them back into the playoff hunt. They started getting more offensive chances and at the 7:00 mark, former Elks Bantam B star, Andrew Ktytor would notch a powerplay goal to make it 3-1. Suddenly, we had a game. Jared Foulds, however, was in Wayzata form stopping everything that came his way and didn’t allow another goal for the rest of the game.

Making Goalies Look Good

For our part, I thought we had ample scoring chances to score that fourth goal to really put the game out of reach but we just seemed to lack focus and didn’t capitalize when we got scoring chances pelting their goalie in the chest over and over. It was kind of frustrating when at some points it was just a matter of picking a side of the net but instead the puck was put dead centre. Because in the end, the game in determined by goals for versus goals against. And while it’s usually hard work that gets you there, you also have to capitalize on your scoring chances when you get them and we’ve all seen plenty of teams get out worked in every facet of the game but still win. And I don’t want to leave anything to chance. Yes, we’ve won 15 straight games so who am I to complain (I’m a coach, that’s who!) but we’ve made too many goalies look very good lately.

On the other side of the puck, Jared’s one goal against this game now brings our team’s regular season goals against average under 2 to 1.95 GAA and to accomplish that you need a team dedicated to defense.

Current Record: 21-1-0 (42 Points)

(But that’s no reason to get complacent)

About 16 hours after returning to Thunder Bay, we had a regular season game against the South End Jr. Stars. As I had mentioned in my last blog post, we lost a young man named Mathew Gibbons well before his time, so before the game we observed a moment of silence. Eric Donaldson, who was quite close to Mathew, honoured him by wearing #3 (a spare jersey we had) for this game.

Zurkan would score two goals on the night

South End would get things started just under three minutes in on the powerplay. A bobbled puck in the crease would lead to battle near our goal line which South End captain, and former Elks 82, Justin McGinnis would punch in the goal. Less than two minutes later, we’d even it up on a goal by our own captain, John Zurkan, who’d score off the rush and before the period ended Gordie Gaudette would work the puck to Gage Bechard who’d bury a goal to put us up 2-1.

Next, Gordie Gaudette would work the puck from behind the net out front to David “Money” Evans. #11 would score at the 11:00 mark of the second but just over a minute later, South End defenseman John Soychak would  score to cut the lead back down to one goal. We exchanged a powerplay per side in the second with no powerplay goals.

Evans score two as well including the game winner

David Evans would extend our lead to 4-2 early in the third period with his second of the game and then, after South End got a 4-minute Head Checking penalty, we’d really open up the lead with 3 goals in just 55 seconds. First Eric Donaldson would sneak in a bankshot off the goalie’s pad from behind the net, John Zurkan would score his second goal on the second powerplay, then Konrad Mutschel would dish the puck to a streaking Zach Shaw who’d lift the puck bar-down on the backhand at close to the 10-minute mark to make it 7-2. Before the period was out, we’d have to kill off a couple penalties to skate to our 20th win of the season.

Current Record: 20-1-0 (40 Points)

Thursday morning, we made the bus trip down to the Minneapolis/St.Paul area for the ‘Wayzata Junior Gold B Tournament’ to compete with a total of eight teams; Five teams from Minnesota, including the Osseo-Maple Grove team that we played in the Grantsburg tournament, one from Fargo, North Dakota, and our old rivals, the Des Moines Buccaneers who we’ve met in tournaments the past three years.

The bus trip down, as usual, was a blast. I’m assuming the kids, who were sitting at the back, were well behaved but I wouldn’t have been able to hear them over the parents if they weren’t. This was the case as well at Romano’s Macaroni Grille (which is always a great place to eat) as the children were seen but not heard. The parents, on the other hand, were easy to pick out.

When we booked the arrangements for this tournament, we had anticipated playing an early afternoon game on Friday but our first game wasn’t until 9:30pm, so we called ahead and booked an hour of ice time at the rink to run a light practice, nothing big, just to get their legs moving and get some passing to decrease the chances of them being flat at game time, and we also ran through some shootout scenarios in preparation should a game go to the shootout.

Game One vs. Burnsville Blaze

We opened the game with the momentum. Had a couple shifts in their end and about half-way into the period we earned our first powerplay. Burnsville countered though when a blocked point shot led to a breakaway for Blaze forward Alex Christoffersen who went in and scored on a nice shot. After that we ran into some penalty trouble but managed to escape the first period only one goal down.

In the second, Burnsville took a 2-0 lead. One of our d-men blew a tire which led to a two man breakaway. Sam Dimmen slid the puck over to Christoffersen who one-timed his second goal of the game into the net. And then a mere 16 seconds later, Burnsville would take a 3-0 lead, this time it was Christoffersen assisting on a goal by Dimmen. We called a time-out to try to calm down and re-focus the boys.

Mount the Comeback

Jordy was going to do whatever it took

Half-way through the second period, we’d get another chance on the powerplay. We moved the puck around well and eventually Evan Saunders would find Brett Pattison in the slot and he wired a one-timer under the crossbar to bring us back within two goals.

In the third period we came out and absolutely poured it on and earned another powerplay. Grant Hughes would fire a puck on net from the point and David “Money” Evans would punch in the rebound. After David’s goal, we got back to pouring on the pressure but Burnsville goaltender, Matt Omodt, stood tall. Eventually though, with about four minutes remaining, John Zurkan would slap a loose puck towards the net and Jordan Gaudette knocked home the rebound to tie the game. Needless to say, we were pretty pumped. Before we could get out of the third, we got a minor penalty with around two minutes remaining. Our penalty killing, as always, was great, and Jared “Red” Foulds kept us in it. This game would head to a 4-on-4 overtime.

Overtime Magic

Dog-pile on Cole!

Overtime looked like the third period as, again, we pressured Burnsville but goaltender, Omodt, was not letting anything he could see past him. It looked to be maybe going to a shootout when Cole Colosimo sent a point shot towards the net. One of the Burnsville defensemen reached out to grab the puck but it went off his glove and up over the goalie’s shoulder and under the bar. Sudden victory! It was a huge comeback. I didn’t doubt that we could do it but I did feel like one more goal by Burnsville might be the nail in the coffin.

Game Two vs. Osseo-Maple Grove Saints

We met Osseo-Maple Grove (OMG) in Grantsburg in a tight game where we came from behind four times to win. It was a tight game and one in which we got a lot of breaks. From playing OMG the last time we were prepared for their style of hockey. They’re fast and they love to use the stretch pass. They transition very well and they’re good at scoring off the rush. They caught us off guard in Grantsburg but this time we were more prepared as the first period we pretty much took turns trying to grind out a goal in their end and then stuffing their rushes.

Goal Rush

Bava gets things rolling

In the second, Lucas “Steady As She Goes” Bava broke the tie with his first goal of the year on a beauty shot that went bar down. Good timing by Lucas! We got a big break moments later as OMG looked like they had tied it up but the goal was waved off as a player was in the crease. On our bench we were a bit confused (and relieved) since they don’t call it like that up in Canada. But with under five minutes remaining, OMG got the play they were looking for as we got caught pinching and they quickly transitioned to a 2-on-1. OMG forward Zach Corbin held on to the puck and made a nice deke move to score and tie it up. We made a couple big plays though in late in the period, first, while on a delayed penalty call, we managed some strong 6-on-5 play before Gordon Gaudette found Gage Bechard all alone in front of the net. Gage hammered the one-timer for the goal, scoring with 1:51 remaining, then gave a mad celee. The next shift Zach Shaw and John Zurkan did a lot of great work at their blue line to keep the puck in their zone and managed to find Kevin Janik all alone in front with all kinds of time. Janik looked over his shooting options for what seemed like 10 seconds before shooting. From our angle on the bench we couldn’t see where the puck went in and, unlike Gage, there was no double fist pump with a leg in the air – In fact, Kevy looked like he was slumping his shoulders, but then Zach came over and hugged him so everyone on the bench put two and two together and started celebrating too. The goal came with 54 seconds remaining. 3-1 lead going into third.

Uh… What’s going on?

In the third, we mostly defended our lead, while generating a few scoring chances. Still, we would have felt better with just one more goal. We had one pretty funny moment where Evan Saunders and OMG forward Tanner Sinjem were battling for a puck in the corner. One of our players swooped in, picked up the puck, and headed down ice. Meanwhile, Evan hadn’t seen the play and kept pressuring the forward on the boards figuring that the puck must be in their feet somewhere, and the forward, still getting pressured by Saunders, must have figured that the puck was somewhere there too so he kept battling. Eventually, the ref blew the whistle and gave them both minor penalties.

Back-Breaker

We needed every goal and every break against OMG

At just over the half-way point of the period, a puck got chipped out of our end to centre and Brett Pattison got into a foot race for the puck. He looked like he was going to lose it when he dove out and poked the puck ahead to Eric Donaldson who went in on a breakaway and scored to make it 4-1.

Too Little Too Late

We had a 3-goal lead and seven remaining minutes to kill in what seemed like the longest third period ever. We managed to kill off one penalty but in the last minute of play, OMG forward Tyler Coyne flew in and snapped a laser under the bar with 54 seconds remaining. The score was still 4-2 but a lot can happen in that amount of time. OMG pulled their goalie and kept pressing. Time was winding down when a puck squirted loose out to the back door to a forward who knocked the puck into our net with 5 seconds left. It appears that Eric’s goal was dearly needed as we clung onto the 4-3 win.

Mathew Gibbons #3

He was a beauty defenseman

The morning of the Championship game we learned that Mathew Gibbons had passed away back home in Thunder Bay after his vehicle was struck by a transport. Mathew had some friends on this team and they, as well as all the players, parents, and coaching staff are thinking of him and his family with heavy hearts. I can only speak on Mathew as an opposing coach. Matthew Gibbons, number ’3′, was in his final year of Midget and had played defense the past two seasons with the Fort William Canadiens. He was a defenseman who, as an opposing coach, you wanted to keep your best scoring line away from. He was such a smooth operator as he was smart defensively and very good at removing players from the puck and then gaining the puck.

He was taken from us too soon. I urge everyone to do whatever they can to support the Gibbons family.

Championship Game vs. Des Moines Buccaneers

Chasing Des Moines

For the past three years, we’ve come down to the US to play in tournaments and in those three years we’ve met Des Moines and lost to them all three times. This will be the fourth year that we’ve tangled with our States-side nemesis and we were hoping for a better outcome.

The first period started off tight as we exchanged chances. Both goalies played well and the first period ended in a 0-0 draw. In the second period Jordan “The Monster” Gaudette had a monstrous shift where he took the puck end-to-end, circled behind the net and then came out in front and fed the puck backdoor to Gage who one-timed the puck in. 1-0 good guys. We found ourselves short-handed with Des Moines starting to buzz in our end and passed it back to the point for a shot, Kevin “Polish Flow” Janik blocked the shot and went in on a breakaway. He had a lot of back pressure but managed to protect the puck, pull it to the backhand for the roof-jobbed. 2-0. From there we started really tilting the ice but couldn’t manage to get the third one.

Keeping the Puck 200 Feet Away from Our Net

Yeeeaaaahhhh!!!

After the intermission, we felt like if we could just keep the play in their end that everything would work out and that’s pretty much what we did. We hemmed Des Moines in their end for the vast majority of the period and nary gave up a scoring chance. They eventually pulled their goalie and had a good chance but we recovered and kept the puck out of the dangerous areas until we finally worked a puck up to Gordie Gaudette who potted the empty netter for the final dagger. We watched the clock run down and then everyone jumped over the boards and tackled Jared “Red” Foulds who had stopped everything that came his way for the well deserved shutout.

2012 Wayzata Tournament Champions!

We were extremely pleased to win this tournament in particular because I figured this would be the hardest one to win, and it was. We were pushed to the extreme in our first game but the boys wouldn’t be denied. We had a game plan against OMG and the boys stuck to it. And then they had a very dominant performance against Des Moines. We couldn’t be prouder.

Those Pesky Canadiens

We’ve lost to two teams in our league this season. One was to the Beavers in a regular season game, our only regular season loss to date, and once to the Fort William Canadiens in the Westfort Tournament. They always play us pretty tough, so it’s surprising that they have a mere 5 wins. This game brought me back to our first game of the season, which was against the Canadiens and was played in Current River Arena, as was this game. We won that first game 2-0 but it was a fast paced, tight checking game, and a great goaltending dual between Jeremy Moore and Erik Tillberg.

Goals in the First

Gordie with the eventual GWG

Tonight that was the same matchup. The Canadiens opened up the scoring about five minutes in when former Elk, Brad Gagnon just put the puck on net. Jeremy just misread it and it managed to beat him over the shoulder. The Canadiens really worked us in the first part of that period but then after a good energy shift, we started to get the momentum back. Earning our second powerplay of the game, it seemed like both John Zurkan and Zach Shaw were digging for a puck in the slot on their backhands and fell down putting the puck towards the net where Kevin Janik dug in a similar fashion, hitting the ice while scoring. It was pretty ugly but that was the kind of goal that was going to be scored against Tillberg tonight.

Late in the period we’d have to kill off a penalty. Gage Bechard did a great job of ragging the puck deep in the Canadiens end. The penalty ended with 34 seconds remaining, we breathed a sigh of relief, but then Gordie Gaudette, who came on after the penalty expired, found himself all alone in front, Gage fed him the puck and Gordie buried with 8 seconds remaining.

Goalies in the Second, Third

Jer gave us a chance to win

The second would remain scoreless. Erik Tillberg was the busier of the two goalies in the second denying a lot of great scoring chances, and seemed to try even harder against his buddies Zach and Kevin. The Canadiens would push back in the third and Jeremy Moore would make a right pad save on a rebound to a player standing alone on the backdoor, and I mean I was already slumping my shoulders as the puck was shot into a seemingly wide open net but Jeremy’s pad just flung out like a Pinball flipper kicking the puck away from a sure goal.

2-1 Final. The other big thing about this game is that our previous record for consecutive regular season wins was nine before we lost to the Beavers. This win now gives us 10 consecutive wins. In the morning we get on the bus to Wayzata, Minnesota (suburb of Minneapolis, I believe), which we’re all excited for.

Current Record: 19-1-0 (38 Points)

Tuesday night we took on the Westfort Maroons (7-7-4), who were coming off a 0-0 tie the previous night with the Westfort Rangers. This game followed the same kind of themes and storyline as our first game of the season with the Maroons (Game 6). I usually like to watch a bit of my opponent’s pre-game skate and see how many skaters are dressed and more importantly, who is dressed. For the Maroons, they only had 10 skaters but they had their big guns in the lineup, which for us meant a very strong line of Nolan Cameron, Nelson Nabigon, and Zachary Andrusco would be out on every second shift.

We really took it to the Maroons right from the first shift but goalie Valee Quachegan was tough to beat. We opened up the scoring about half-way into the first period when John Zurkan would deflect a shot from the point by Cole Colosimo. Evan Saunders, who was enjoying the play from the bench, would get credit for the goal on the game sheet while Zurkan didn’t even get credit for an assist, so… Congrats to Evan, I guess.

Bad Breaks

Showing off is active stick

We kept pressing and doing all the little things right, just not burying that second goal as we’d have several great chances, including breakaways, but Quachegan kept them in there. Maroons would get their break as we took a roughing penalty late in the second period. One second after the penalty expired, the Maroons’ John Falvo would score to tie the game 1-1 with exactly one minute remaining. We thought we had regained the lead in the last minute when Gage Bechard, pursuing a Maroons defenseman while we had a delayed penalty, slapped at the defenseman’s stick in front of his own net. The puck when flipped up and landed in the Maroons’ vacated net but the ref felt that Gage had touched the puck and therefore the play would be dead as soon as he touched it. It all happened pretty fast but it looked like Gage read that play exactly right and tried to score without actually touching the puck and should have been given the goal. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pull that off either, he’s a tremendous forechecker and has a very smart active stick. Oh well. Time to regroup.

Monster Effort

"The Monster"

We had a remaining penalty from the second period to kill off, which we did, and then it was back to pressing for the go-ahead goal. Jordan Gaudette went on an incredible one-man rush and nearly knocked in his own rebound. The puck came back to Cole Colosimo would fired the shot through a screen and under the arm of Quachegan. The game sheet, now 0-for-2, gave credit to Gaudette for the goal. Cole didn’t even get credit for an assist… But I’m sure he’s only too happy with us taking the lead to care.

Our penalty killing would be pushed to its limits again though. After a scrimmage in front of our net, we’d find our selves on a four minute 4-on-3 penalty kill. Jordan Gaudette was a monster, coming up with huge shot blocks and icing the puck. Gage and Zach would come up big as well for us in keeping it a one-goal game as we’d manage to kill off the penalty.

Gamesheet

Maroons would pull their goal for the extra attacker with a face-off deep in our end. Jesse Milani would win the puck right over to Brett Pattison who’d shoot for the empty net. The puck, which was on its side, looked to be going right of the net. Brett yelled out what we were all thinking, “Get in the net!” and either by luck or Brett’s plea or our bench’s collective will, that puck started steering itself towards the goal mouth and went in. The gamesheet would credit Brett with the goal but neglect to reward Jesse with an assist for winning the face-off right to him. Jared Fould, once again, played awesome, keeping the Maroons to a single goal.

In the end, the “W” is what matters but it would be nice if the stats on our gamesheets reflected more (and accurate) credit to players who deserve it. It’s too common to have several unassisted goals and too uncommon to have a secondary assist, depending on the referee. And I get why, because we can’t go back to the instant replay and check and the officials are more concerned with other things (and rightly so) such as “Did the puck go in the net?” But I haven’t yet seen a referee react badly to a goal scorer skating up to him and saying “that was from [jersey number] and [jersey number]“. I have five referees between our players, coaches, and parents that I can ask about that too but I would think, if I were a referee, that I would take that as a sign of good sportsmanship that a goal scorer is looking out for the guys who set him up. Maybe one of my referees can fill me in.

Current Record: 18-1-0 (36 Points)

Welcome to the Jungle

Once a season, as a team in the Midget A division, we drive up to Nipigon for a regular season game. This was a game that, as a coaching staff, we were anticipating being one of our tougher contests of the season. After us, Nipigon has the second highest goals per game for in Midget A. They have some explosive scoring and an ability to really fill the net. We expected a pumped up Nipigon team that would bring their “A” game and be extra motivated in their own barn.

Well, we’ve been wrong before

Only 25 seconds in, we had a one-goal lead and by the end of the first period we had a 5-1 lead including three goals in the span of exactly 30 seconds. I was a bit miffed by the goal they scored since it came off of what was going to be an iced puck that was stopped by the skate of a linesman leading to the goal but those things just happen, and in retrospect, we did get our second goal in a similar fashion with a puck taking a fortuitous ricochet of the backside of a linesman. We took a 9-1 lead into the 2nd intermission.

Call-up Nathan Hogan was glad he made the 70-minute trip

Rather than going into a big post about every goal that was scored, I’ll just summarize by saying we eventually won the game 12-1. Nathan Hogan, an affiliate player who made the trip up to Nipigon for the game, scored four goals and got credited with two assists for a six point night. Goaltender Jeremy Moore’s performance was impressive since, even though he wasn’t too busy, the scoring chances he did face were pretty good ones and it always seems to me like it would be harder to make infrequent big saves with nothing to in between, rather than facing a lot of shots and then having to make a big save. And our defense, despite the big lead, never resigned on their defensive responsibilities and were vigilant in snuffing out any offensive chances.

No complaints here. Now let’s grab some Timmies and get the hell out of here!

Current Record: 17-1-0 (34 Points)

If you’ll recall, I recently wrote a short blog about finding a bunch of my old business cards. They looked so funny to me, especially compared to my then current ones, which always got a good reaction from people because of their design and paper quality. But I recently upgraded to even newer cards which, in my opinion, blow the old ones away.

They have a black suede finish. The texture is great and the black isn’t just printed on, they’re black all the way through. They’re printed on in a metallic ink and shines in the light. On side one is the Ulrich Design logo printed in silver metallic ink, and then on side two, my contact information printed in silver and then I have almost like a hidden message (but not hidden, actually if it was too well hidden it would defeat the purpose) in black metallic ink.

I usually have reservations with printed items just because there’s usually a discrepancy between what’s on your monitor and what ends up in your hands. It’s not a perfect translation. Luckily, these turned out better than I expected.

Have a gander (click the photos to get a bigger view). Hopefully I’ll be slipping one into your hand soon.

A stack of my new cards (Click to Embiggen)

Cards are made from black material (Click to Embiggen)

The black ink reveals additional info (Click to Embiggen)

View of me handing one out (Click to Embiggen)

Tuesday night, we took on the Westfort Rangers. The Rangers’ record of 1-11-1 going into this game have them in last place. Conversely, our record of 15-1-0 has us squarely in first. To add to that, the Rangers were missing four of their best players, four players who we were pretty high on at evaluations. On paper it looked like a “can’t lose” game. Unfortunately, in hockey, there is no such thing. No matter the odds, hard work and discipline can prevail. This, my readers, is what you call a foreshadowing.

Jer & Jar

"Red" gets the start tonight

One of the keys to our team’s success this year has been our goaltending tandem of Jared Foulds and Jeremy Moore. Through our first 16 regular season games, both have played 8 games and share an identical Goals Against Average (GAA) of 2.125. Tonight’s starter was to be Jeremy but instead, they had agreed to trade off since Jared had family there to watch.

Call-ups

To add a little more intrigue to this game for us was that we are trying out a couple affiliates for the first time to fill in for players on Christmas vacation. On defense, Riley Cassidy from the West End Bruins-Midget B and on forward, Brennon Marcinyshyn of the VP Bearcats-Midget B. We’ve known/known-of Brennon from last season as the MVP for the Elks 82s-Bantam A. He’s an offensively talented, super crafty little player so we were excited to see him back in purple.

First Period

Back in Purple

Brennon’s first shift couldn’t have gone any better as he took a pass from Elks Captain, John Zurkan and one-touched the pass out front to Kevin Janik for the goal. He looked like he had played with that line all season. Brett Pattison would extend our lead to 2-0 on a shot from the high slot with Eric Donaldson screening the goalie. Less than a minute later, the Rangers’ Aaron Smith would score to cut the lead to 2-1 and then in the late in the period, Matthew Olinski would score to tie the game.

Second Period

Early in the second, we’d storm the net. It would look like we blew a good scoring opportunity but the puck came back to Cole Colosimo who kept the play alive. A bit of scrambled play would lead to Kevin Janik finding the puck in the slot and wrist-shoting it home for the 3-2 lead. Two minutes later, however, Rangers forward Adam Poulter would score on a goal through a lot of traffic to tie the game.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, Westfort was absolutely working us and showing us why you don’t disrespect your opponent. It may be cliché but it’s true, the game is played on the ice and so far, our guys played like they expected to win just by showing up. Our approach would have to change to pull this game out.

Third Period

Big game for "The Flow"

We’d come out a bit better in the third but Westfort still pushed back strongly. We’d get our break though just over three minutes in when we’d draw our first powerplay of the game, which is kind of surprising considering how chippy a game it was. We’d catch the Rangers on a bad change as Cole Colosimo would make a long pass up to John Zurkan who’d outlet to Kevin Janik. Janik would step over the blue line and fire a wrist shot, off the rush, top corner glove side for the hattrick and to put us up 4-3. Janik’s big night wouldn’t be over as with about four minutes remaining he’d go on a 2-on-1 with Brett Pattison. Pattison would slide a beauty pass (hold the sauce) over to Janik who’d one-time it in.

Cool stat: We’ve had 9 hattricks this year

Late in the period it would look like Brennon Marcinyshyn scored his first goal in Midget A with a nice backhand roof job on a rebound but one of the Rangers knocked the net off. Too bad for him but nonetheless, he had impressed us. 5-3 final.

It wasn’t our best game, not by a long shot. Efforts like this one will not serve us well in the future but at least the last 15 minutes were good. We pulled out our 7th consecutive regular season win and hopefully a lesson learned.

Current Record: 16-1-0 (32 Points)

Last stop before Christmas!

Thursday night, we played the late game against the Beavers. This would be an important game since they’re the second place team behind us, and a victory would mean a 10-point lead with 12 games remaining in the regular season; A loss, a mere 6 points. Also, the Beavers are the only team to hand us a loss in the regular season so returning the favour would be a nice early Christmas gift.

Sloppy Start

One of our good passing plays in the first 14 minutes

We got off to a pretty sloppy start in this game. We managed to keep it scoreless for most of the first period but we’d get on the penalty kill and Morgan McKay would bury a backhand on a quick play off the draw to make it 1-0 Beavers. Our passing just wasn’t what it should be and while we would have been glad be able to get out of the period and into the break with just a one goal deficit we actually managed to tie the game 1-1. Grant Hughes made a nice backhanded pass through the neutral zone to John Zurkan who’d setup Kevin Janik on a breakaway and score on a sweet deke move with 20 seconds remaining in the period. It took long enough but at last we connected two nice passes and it turned out to be very beneficial.

Making Adjustments

After the break, the play would be pretty tight. We’d break it open when Cole Colosimo would spot a loose pick in the high slot, pinch in and wrist a puck over the goalies’ glove hand. Our defense would generate some more offense as Lucas Bava sent a point shot on net which would be tipped by Eric Donaldson. Donaldson picked up his own rebound and knocked in our third unanswered goal. The Beavers would cut the lead back down to 2-1 with a minute left. Lee Ferguson would pick up a rebound in front and put it top corner. 3-2 after 2 periods.

 More ‘O’ from ‘D’

Bava has a very high "Hockey IQ"

The score would remain 3-2 for the first five minutes of the third until Grant Hughes would pinch in to keep the puck in, his shot was blocked but Kevin Janik would find the loose puck in the slot and fire it past the Beavers goaltender. Then less than a minute later, after holding in a puck at the opposition blue line, Cole Colosimo would send a D-to-D pass to Lucas Bava, Lucas wound up for a clapper and as the Beavers braced themselves, Bava sauced the puck a few feet wide of the net to a wide open Gage Bechard who tipped the puck in. 5-2 on five goals with the offense being generated on plays from our defenseman.

The sixth goal, however, was all Gage. Gage Bechard went on a breakaway and scored on a deke move that only he could pull off. The bench roared with delight before maybe considering that perhaps the lead was now secure enough that celebrating wasn’t necessary… But it was an incredible goal.

I don’t mean to play it off as an afterthought but we got yet another stellar game from our goaltending. Jared “Red” Foulds kept us in this game while we weren’t at our best and made a lot of really big saves.

 Current Record: 15-1-0 (30 Points)