This week, the Larry Hudson Mitchell Midget Rep team will be in Wingham playing in the Wingham Regional Silverstick Qualifier, trying to earn the right to represent Mitchell in the International Silverstick Tournament. The Midget Reps will play three games in all. Their first game was Sunday morning against the league leaders, the Listowel Cyclones. The boys have only encountered the Cyclones once this year at the Roy Beechey Tournament where they suffered a heart breaking 1-0 loss.
With the first full roster of the year, the Midget Reps set foot on the ice for the first game of the 10 day event in Wingham against their league rivals @ 9 am. The structure of the games are 10 minute first period followed by 15 minute second and third periods.
Mitchell got into trouble late in the first when the “fellow" in the stripped shirt called the first penalty of the game at 3:41 putting Mitchell on the penalty kill. At 2:57 that “fellow" did it again and the boys would find themselves with another penalty and faced a 5 on 3, which would be the achilles heel for Mitchell’s net minder Ryan Bell and the first goal of the Regional Qualifier was posted for Listowel at the 1:47 mark. Still on the penalty kill, Mitchell would finally killing it off, finishing the period only down by one at the end.
The second period had chances at both ends of the ice. The Mitchell Rep power play unit got a chance to show their adversaries that they too can score goals on power plays, Raymond Horan sauced the puck across the ice to Eric Gettler who made no mistake sending the 6 ounces of devastation to the back of the Cyclone's netting @2:04. The period would end tied at 1-1.
After the flood, both teams would get lots of looks at either end of the ice, but at the 6:27 mark, the the league leaders would strike once again breaking the tie and moving the score board to 2-1. Mitchell’s coaching staff would pull Bell at 1:02, adding the the sixth skater and with just 1.7 seconds left Mitchell would find the back of the net….or would they? Well it depends on who you ask, from our vantage point it was in, the Mitchell players on the ice said it was in , however the only opinion that mattered, that “fellow”, said other wise, the game would end with another heart breaking loss 2-1.
Next game for the Larry Hudson Mitchell Midget Rep team in the Wingham Silverstick Regional Qualifiers will be this Thursday, November 14th against the Tavistock Titans being played in Wingham @9pm.