Mar 28, 2017 | Heather Monden | 618 views
LET'S WIN THIS THING!
At 8:08pm on Thursday, March 23rd the puck dropped at centre ice in the Mitchell arena to kick start the Scotiabank Bantam LL final series in WOAA action vs South Bruce.
Mitchell won the face off as Carter YOST scooped the puck up and took off into his opponents end and shot on net seven seconds later, no goal, but an impressive start to the game and an indication of how the remaining of the period would go. Less than a minute later Curtis "CHEESE" DEJONG scored with the assistance of line-mate YOST. The boys in white dominated all period long. Basil "HERB" VOROS and teammates were digging hard in front of the net to get goal number two when Cole WILTON skated up from the bench, received a pass from HERB and effortlessly dumped the puck in. With less than 50 seconds to go in the period YOST stick handled around South Bruce, for what seemed an eternity, and finally increased the score 3 zip. South Bruce got their first goal in the 2nd and shortly into the 3rd they got another. Mitchell was still up 3 to 2 as the game neared the end but, as we all know, the games not over until the final buzzer sounds. In an unfortunate turn of events our boys win was snatched away when South Bruce scored with just 37 seconds left on the clock, tying up the game, and forcing us into OT. Mitchell did not give up as they fired shot after shot at the Sound Bruce goalie, who had stepped up his game as well. Even the goal post was deflecting our attempts at a win and despite a huge effort the game ended in a tie.
The following Sunday the team travelled to the Mildmay arena (let me a take a minute here to advise they have a strict "no noise maker" policy…well, I’m not actually sure how "strict" it is, but there is a sign on the door, there is no warm area, but they have the BEST heaters EVER! I didn’t even have to wear my mitts :) ). As far as the game was concerned, it was a bit of a gong show. Mitchell struggled and South Bruce took advantage to the tune of a 6 to 2 win for them. Things didn’t look too shabby at the beginning as Mitchell tied the game up 1 to 1 early in the 2nd period with a beauty set-up by Wade MONDEN to Will STEINBACH and netted by Josh BEDOUR. After that, however, South Bruce scored four more times that period. WILTON made the final second of the 2nd period exciting as he "scored" on the buzzer, but it didn’t count as it just didn’t make it past the line in time. CHEESE scored unassisted in the 3rd period concluding the last time our score would increase. It was a tough night, but we are still in this competition!
South Bruce will tour to Mitchell on Thursday, March 30th at 8pm to take on our boys for what promises to be a very exciting game. Hockey season will soon be over, so why not take in this game and cheer on our bantam boys. They have to win to stay in this thing. Oh, and I WILL be bringing my cow bell.