Oct 27, 2011 | hcarruthers | 346 views
Warriors Tie Bandits for Second Time
Tuesday night brought the London Bandits to the Molson arena to take on the Stratford Crabby Joes Minor Bantam MD Warriors. With the rivalry still fresh from their previous encounter which ended in a 3-3 tie, it was sure to be a great game. With the flu running through the Warrior team, the Warriors were short defensively with Matt Carman and Evan Roulston out of the lineup and no call ups available. With some line juggling, the Warriors came out strongly in the first half of period one playing a very aggressive game, but the Bandits pushed back late in the first taking the momentum away from the Warriors and at times pinning Stratford in their own end.
With the score 0-0 going into the second, the Bandits continued their onslaught on the Warriors but thanks to Xavier Rutherford, who brought his A game, they couldn't bury any and the period ended in a 0-0 tie. Stratford seemed tired in the third and at the 12:39 marker the Bandits found the back of the net on a tip in. Rutherford bounced back and continued to make key saves which allowed the Warriors to stay close on the score board and after a hard drive by Kalyb Mccomb to the Bandits net, which drew a London penalty, Stratford tied it on the powerplay at 10:30 from a beautiful bar down shot by Parker Wamboldt. Ryan Carruthers shut down a 3 on 1 break by London and with only minutes remaining, James Drake intercepted what was sure to be a London goal. With Rutherford shutting the door the rest of the way, Stratford was thankful to come out with a 1-1 tie.