After two close losses to start the WOAA season the New Orleans Pizza Peewee Rep’s pull off back to back wins to regain the .500 mark.
On Wednesday the team traveled to Walkerton to face the Capitals. Three minutes into the contest; from behind the Mitchell net, a Walkerton forward threw out a blind pass headed to no one. The puck bounced off a Mitchell defenders skate and redirected into the net putting the Capitals up 1-0. Both sides would hold each other in check until two minutes into the second period when Walkerton converted a two on one break into a two goal margin. A minute later Mitchell would get a lucky bounce of their own when Quaid Austin let a strong shot go from the left-hand boards which hit the Walkerton defenseman’s stick in front of the net and bounced up and over the net-minder finding its way into the net. Jarett Vogels and Kaleb Baker drew the assists. The teams would go to the 2nd intermission with no further scoring. Early in the final frame a hard working Jacob Rauser dug the puck out of the Walkerton corner getting it to Jake Preszcator who then had a beauty give & go with Riley Sykes to pull the goalie out of position and then buried the puck into the gapping net. Three minutes later Mitchell would take a 3-2 lead thanks to Preszcator & Judd Walker getting the puck to Jacob McPhee deep in the Walkerton corner. McPhee busted hard behind the Walkerton net only to quickly reverse the flow and tuck it in the open corner of the net as the goalie and both D-men were still going the other way. Walkerton would even it up with a power play goal midway through the period. With just over a minute left in the game Rauser won a face off in the Walkerton end getting the puck to McPhee who then gave a nice feed to Preszcator who made no mistake giving Mitchell a nice come from behind 4-3 win rewarding solid net-minding duties by Tanner Knechtel.
Two nights later Mitchell played their first league game against the hometown crowd versus Saugeen Shores. Mitchell came out strong and dominated the play early but could not get one by the Saugeen back-stop. Nearing the end of the first Jarett Vogels finally jammed one home on a goal mouth scramble to open the scoring. Curtis Lockhart & Stephen Bird were given helpers. Midway through the second period Saugeen would get on the board with a power play goal and skate to the intermission with a 1-1 deadlock. Less then two minutes into the third Saugeen would go ahead 2-1 with their second power play goal of the game. Mitchell responded 38 seconds later when Walker won a face off in the Saugeen end back to Jacob Deck on the point. Deck’s shot was in and out before the goalie could react. 34 seconds later McPhee would make it 3-2 Mitchell with assists to Walker & Ryan Murray. With just over five minutes left in what was shaping up to be a tight finish Reid Ramseyer took a big hit at center ice to make a play. Although he was not officially credited with an assist his pass to Rauser lead directly to a goal by Calvin McCorkindale making it 4-2. Riley Deline made several key saves to preserve the lead as Mitchell killed off a series of penalties. In the dieing minutes of the game Rauser scored back to back goals 40 seconds apart to ice the 6-2 victory. McPhee, Preszcator & McCorkindale were credited with the assists. Mitchell’s next action is Thursday night hosting the Listowel Cyclones @ 8 pm.