On Wednesday March 20th, the Terry’s Auto Service
Mitchell Midget AE's traveled to their league rivals the BCH Icedogs to start the WOAA finals. I have not wrote any articles since these two teams played last…just ask any parent on the team why.
Over the course of my hiatus, the boys have played several games to earn the right to play in the WOAA finals against the BCH Icedogs. They eliminated Walkerton Capitals, eliminated the Hanover Falcons and finally eliminated the Blyth-Brussel Crusaders all with determination, passion and grit, something that was certainly missing during the OMHA games. As expected, the arena last night night was filled with tension and the game was full of excitement, as will be this series.
Mitchell stuck first in the first period when Josh Duncan, a call up from the LL’s, with help from Caleb Tweddle and Curtis Chaffe put the first goal on the game sheet. This would be the only goal for either team during the first period. Mitchell would add to their lead mid way through the second when Jake Monden netted himself a point with helpers going to both Joe Hill and Jackson MacArthur making it 2-0. However, the Dogs would not be held scoreless and capitalized on a power play to cut the lead in half 2-1. Mitchell would respond quickly, when Daren Feltz sniped one pass the Dogs net minder with help from Josh Edit and Solomon Koert. This would end the scoring for the second period at 3-1.
Stripes were quick to acknowledge the errors in judgement made by our boys and we were once again on the penalty kill and once again the Dogs capitalized on the opportunity early in the third making it 3-2. As more judgemental errors were made by the boys, Ryan Bell stood his ground and held the score at 3-2. As the clock became the enemy of the hosts, desperation set in and with yet another power play for the home team, they pulled their goalie to have a two man advantage on the ice with hopes of tying the game with two minutes left to play. With the play in our end, Hill to Josh Bedour who finds Koert with a tape to tape pass and Koert starts his dangerous way through 6 Dogs all wanting to take a bite out of him towards the other end, eluding BCH players, dangling around others, avoiding checks by others and being "heavy on his stick", he finally found open ice, fixated his sights on the target and sent 6 ounces of devastation dead centre to our hosts empty net, smashing their hopes of a tie and ending the scoring for game #1 of the WOAA finals 4-2.
The WOAA is a 4 point series with wins counting for 2 points and ties 1 point. Mitchell earns the first two points of this series and will play for additional points Saturday March 23 in Mitchell @ 8 pm. If you are not busy, come on out and support the Terry’s Auto Service Mitchell Midget AE’s, you won’t be disappointed.