The Bantam LL’s had a busy weekend of hockey. They hosted Lucknow in their home barn on Friday night and then took to the road for the remainder of the weekend playing Drayton on Saturday night and Kincardine on Sunday afternoon.
Friday night started out a little slow, but things picked up in the 2nd period as Kole HUNT set Carter YOST up allowing him to drive that puck to the back of the net for goal number one. Lucknow tried to score on Stevie DAUM, but this proved difficult as he would tuck and roll trapping the puck and robbing his opponents several times. Josh BEDOUR padded Mitchell’s lead when he smashed the puck past their netminder with the assistance of Brent SMITH and Curtis DEJONG. Mitchell was feeling comfortable until Lucknow scored on a rebound narrowing the gap by one. After a 10-minute break, Mitchell came back and owned the 3rd period. Cole WILTON scored goal number three with the assistance of Dominic VOROS giving the boys back some of their confidence. Excitement started to fill the stands and the fans were on the edge of their seats with several oooh’s and awww’s as the puck danced in front of Lucknow’s net, each time in the perfect position, but never quite able to make it over the line. Denzyl FINLAYSON and Basil VOROS set up another perfect play in front of the net and, finally, HUNT could finish the job with goal number four. Lucknow was not giving up and it looked like they were once again going to narrow the gap as they got a breakaway and a hard shot on our net, but DAUM took care of that and the fans breathed easy once again. As the game neared the end, Curtis CHAFFE and HUNT passed the puck up the ice once last time to cherry picker, WILTON, and he effortlessly scored Mitchell’s last goal of the night giving them a 5 to 1 win. Excitement filled the air after this big win and everyone was looking forward to meeting at the rink the following night.
Now I’m not sure if these boys needed a nap or a round of sandwiches, but they were some cranky on Saturday night. The bench was 4 bodies short and, thus, the boys didn’t get too much time to rest between shifts. I will note; however, that they did come out of the gate hard to start the game and hammered Drayton’s goalie with a solid shot just six seconds after the puck drop, but the rest was a gong show, and no it didn’t go in, it was just a really great shot on net. Drayton proceeded to score on us FIVE times. We scored twice. The boys did manage to liven up in the 3rd period and YOST, after several attempted slap shots, finally scored top shelf leaving the goalie motionless as it whizzed past his helmet. That game ended 5 to 2 and everyone just collected their stuff and went home.
Sunday afternoon the team made the long journey to Tiverton to play Kincardine. Everyone was tired and we feared a repeat of the night before, but that was not the case. The Meteors played a stellar game winning the 1st period and tying the 2nd and 3rd for an eventual 4 to 2 win for Mitchell. The air was positive and it showed in their game. Kincardine almost had the first goal of the night, but the red goal post prevented that from happening. WILTON with the assistance of DEJONG snuck the puck in beside the goalie for the first goal and shortly after that YOST got a shorthanded goal, also sneaking it in just over the goalie’s pad. By the end of the period, Mitchell had three men in the sin bin. This became a common occurrence throughout the game to have multiple penalties, but the boys persevered and played a solid game despite being short handed here and there. Kincardine answered back early in the 2nd, but WILTON kept the visitor’s scoreboard ahead as he fired the puck in the net. BEDOUR earned that assist. Once again, BEDOUR charged towards the net flicking the puck up and over the goalie pad giving Mitchell their fourth and final goal of the game. WILTON and DEJONG assisted that time. Kincardine got one more in before the end of the period. BEDOUR once again attacked the net and shot the puck, but this time Kincardine’s goal post echoed with a loud ting and sent the puck back out into play. Both teams played hard which made it worth the long drive to watch them all play so well.
Mitchell will finish off their league play with a Wednesday night game in Lucknow and a Friday night home game in Monkton. Good luck boys!! Play hard and have fun :).