The Scotiabank Bantam LL team
travelled to the very cold barn in Brussels on Tuesday, January 13th
to take on the Blyth-Brussels Crusaders.
Fans huddled around the one activated heater in the stands to watch the
first of two games against this team.
Period one started out a little rough between the two teams but, as a result, led to some excitement for the Mitchell team when Anthony BEUERMAN was tripped during his sweet breakaway towards their net and as a result the ref called a PENALTY SHOT! Mitchell fans are often suggesting a penalty shot is in order and today they got their wish. BEUERMAN took his place at the red line facing the only other player on the ice, the Crusaders goal tender. BEUERMAN took off like a shot obviously intimidating his opponent and delivered the puck top shelf and scored goal number one for Mitchell. The period ended 1 to 0 for us.
Period two the boys settled down some and started to use their passing skills and play like the team we are used to watching. Ben HART provided strong defense throughout the game as did Hayden ADAIR. As a result, most of this period was played in the Crusaders end of the rink and Mitchell provided lots of shots on net. Kurtis FORREST attempted to net the puck as did Eric DEARING, Tristan BEEHLER and Zeke KOERT who set up a beauty play and almost scored, but that Crusader’s goalie was clearly some sort of acrobat or contortionist as he twisted and turned and leapt to fend off our aggressive scoring attempts. We continued to hammer their net and Nic BAKER even let loose a few high quality slap shots. Players scrambled to make line changes, but these keen eyed refs would not be fooled and awarded both teams, at different times during the game, a “too many players” penalty. So that’s fair, I guess. With only 1 minute and 23 seconds left in this period we faced off in their end, of course. We had the advantage and used it. With just 59 seconds left on the clock, DEARING passed the puck to BEEHLER who shot on net and then FORREST scored with a rebound shot. We continued to have a few more face offs in their end and KOERT tried desperately to score too, but then the puck flew down towards our goalie Reid DEGROOT. He seemed cold and bored anyways, so he needed a little action. The period ended 2 to 0 for us.
Period three a Mitchell player took his seat almost immediately in the sin bin leaving us at a disadvantage and then, less than a minute after that, a clean check sent one of the Crusaders into the boards. The arena was silent as his trainer made the sign to call the ambulance. I think we can all agree that this is every hockey parents’ nightmare. Everyone sat quietly as they covered him with blankets in an attempt to keep his body temperature warm. He remained motionless to prevent further injury until the ambulance arrived. It felt like an eternity! As a result, the game was over and we all went home praying that their player would be okay. The next day we received word that nothing was broken and the doctor said it would be a couple weeks before he could get back on the ice. Mom said never! We all breathed a sigh of relief and were happy to hear that he came to watch his team face off against us on the 14th in Mitchell.
Wednesday, January 14th Mitchell hosted the Crusaders in Mitchell. Period one started out much the same way it did the night before, a little rough between the two teams with the majority of the penalties for the night occurring during these 15 minutes. The Crusaders came at our team hard and netted the first goal of the night within the first minute and a half of play. They also acquired eight minutes of penalties during that period and had one player kicked out for “checking from behind”. Mitchell did not back down and worked hard to try and even things up. A few line changes were made the night before and everyone seemed to be working well with their new line-mates. The newly formed line of Jackson MACARTHUR, Jake MONDEN and KOERT had lots of opportunities and kept the Crusaders goalie on his toes. DEGROOT got a lot more action tonight and played like a champion. The Crusaders did manage to squeak in another fluky goal and we ended this period 2 to 0 for them.
I am not sure if it was the combination of the cheering Mitchell fans or the coaches’ inspirational words, but our boys took over in period two. BEUERMAN, once again, scored Mitchell’s first goal of the night with the assistance of MACARTHUR and Nate BAKER. Shortly after that, Connor LOUWAGIE passed the puck to Nate BAKER and BAKER scored goal number two. The second assist went to our lightning fast defenceman, Kyle WETTLAUFER. Nate BAKER had an exciting breakaway (because when is a breakaway not exciting), but unfortunately was not getting it past their goalie this time. Nic BAKER continued to make slap shots from the point that seemed to get harder and faster each time he delivered one. And just to add a little more excitement to the game, the MACARTHUR, MONDEN, KOERT line ascended on the Crusaders net with only 40 seconds left on the clock, and successfully placed goal number three in the net. The goal was awarded to MACARTHUR and the assists to line-mates MONDEN and KOERT. Period two ended 3 to 2 for us.
Period three we held on tight to our lead. Des FINLAYSON kept their goalie on his toes with several great shots on net and coming so close to increasing our lead, but tonight’s Crusaders goalie is definitely a ball player as he snagged several of our shots with his glove. Hayden ADAIR continued to work hard all game long assisting in keeping the puck out of Mitchell’s end. The Crusaders wanted this win bad and managed to tie up the game. However, with 5 minutes and 36 seconds left on the clock MACARTHUR scored his second goal of the night. His dad had his hat ready…will he get another hat trick? BEEHLER assisted with this goal. Play continued but the clock did not. Apparently, too many crumbs were obstructing the buttons and after a good cleaning play was underway once again. With only a couple minutes left, Mitchell had a power play, but the Crusaders decided to pull their goalie in an attempt to tie up this game. They scrambled in front of our net, but DEGROOT kept us safe and with mere seconds left in the game FINLAYSON and BEUERMAN delivered that puck over to LOUWAGIE to seal the deal on their empty net and leave us with a 5 to 3 victory!
As always, it was a pleasure to cheer on this team. Keep up the good work boys!