The Hiller Realty Minor Peewee Rep Team started the regular season off against the GLHA Mustangs Purple on Saturday afternoon. The team was really happy to have number 11 – Aiden Benton back in the forward line up.
Danny Van Straaten started the offensive effort early on with a nice shot 10 seconds in. Not too long after, we saw Luke Heisz make a cross ice pass to Owen Holloway. Holloway sent the puck singing along to Kaden Brame near the red line. Brame took it on a breakaway resulting in a beauty top shelf goal. A few minutes later the Mustangs had a breakaway but Avery Thurston raced off the bench during a defensive switch and broke it up. The defense were working hard with a 4 man rotation for this game and Colton Gibson played up on forward. Gibson fired off a great shot that hit the goalie’s stick and bounced away. Near the end of the period the Mustangs got a shot in and the period ended 1-1.
The Warriors got a penalty early in the second period. Keifer MacNeil had some nice saves to keep it tied. They killed the penalty and then almost had a goal that seemed like it was going to sneak just inside the post but the Mustangs goalie smothered it until the whistle went. MacNeil was kept busy throughout this period and was looking really good. Thurston broke up a 2 on 1. The second penalty of the game was called and they were on the penalty kill again. Hayden White-Roy helped the clock run down by getting the puck stuck in his skate and all the players were spinning around looking for it. The Mustangs went on to score while the Warriors were short handed. Then London had another great chance where there was a scramble in the corner of the crease and they made a wrap around move to an open net. MacNeil slid across on his pads facing into the net and robbed them! White-Roy was making some nice moves down the ice with the puck on the right wing. Benton was skating hard and made a nice shot on net. The Mustangs kept up the pressure and the score became 3-1.
The between period pep talk was extremely effective because the team came out all fired up. They started the third in a penalty kill and managed to go on the offensive shorthanded. The first power play for the Warriors happened and they worked hard to score. Then another Mustangs penalty got called and we saw 5 on 3 play for 30 seconds. Thurston made a slick pass to Holloway who sent it over to Van Straaten who fired it in. We had some time left of 5 on 4 but the score remained 3-2. MacNeil made a sprawling save and another shot went off the post. Thurston was making great defensive plays and the fans could sense another goal coming. Sam Jeffrey passed to Holloway who passed it back and then Jeffrey spun in front of the net to tie it up! A Mustangs shot from the point went in and the Warriors were down again 4-3. Thurston dove to interrupt a breakaway. Heisz and Van Straaten made shots on net. With 2 minutes left a Mustangs penalty was called. Warriors’ coaches called a time out. With an exciting end to the game we saw the goalie pulled for a 6 on 4. Holloway continued saucing sick dishes like a chef on a busy Saturday night and got it over to Van Straaten. Jeffrey got the puck from them in the blue paint and jammed it home to tie the game! With 15 seconds left a Mustangs breakaway made us hold our breath but the shot went off MacNeils’ mask and the game was done. Final score 4-4 : great start to the season boys.
Game 2 - Sunday vs. Hamilton Huskies
Sunday saw a road trip for the Hiller Realty Minor Peewee Rep team to Hamilton to play the Huskies. The last match up in late September was a nail biter with Stratford losing 4-3.
The first period started with the puck stuck in our end. It finally got out and Cole Meadows made a nice pass to Jared Gould who took a shot. The Warriors got a penalty and were shorthanded. They did an excellent job of fending off the Huskies for the 2 minutes. Jake Heinbuch made a great diving stop on a point blank scoring chance. The Huskies turned up the heat and in the span of a few minutes got 2 goals off of a pair of 2 on 1s. Owen Holloway fired off a great shot but it got stopped. So with 8.5 seconds left on the clock, he tried again and succeeded! The assists were from Danny Van Straaten and Kaden Brame.
With the score 2-1, the Warriors had some work cut out for them in the second period. Fans were being treated to another clean, close game full of exciting action. Thomas Sheldon made a hard drive to the net with a good scoring chance. Gould was on a 2 on 1 against the Huskies and passed it to Meadows. The pass made it over to Heinbuch who shot it in for a tie game! The score was 2-2 for only a moment and then a shot from the slot went in to make it 3-2 for the Huskies. Wes Duiker had a hard shot off the post with 4 minutes left in the period. Lucas Jacklin in goal made a great save on a close shot to keep it a 1 goal game. A penalty was called when Heinbuch got tripped by an over zealous Huskies player. Hamilton killed the penalty and the period ended with a score of 3-2.
The third period started with a lot of back and forth play without many scoring chances. Warriors were short handed after a penalty was called. Hayden White-Roy worked hard on the penalty kill and got a shot on the Huskies net. Sheldon made smart plays to run down the clock. They killed the penalty but then the Huskies jammed a puck in the side for a very close call goal. The score was 4-2 with 8 minutes left. A shot from the high slot went top shelf and the Warriors were down by 3 goals. Holloway passed up to Van Straaten who drove hard to the net and scored! Holloway then got tripped and we had a power play. Meadows had a shot from in close but the play got back to even strength with it still 5-3. The last minute and a half of the game the Warriors were short handed. They put some good pressure on the Huskies but lost with a final score of 5-3.