Feb 23, 2014 | Colin Schmidt | 819 views
Warriors Tie, Lose on Weekend
The Tier 1 Novice Warriors faced the Oakridge Aeros followed by a rematch against the West London Hawks in weekend playoff action. The Aeros led the regular-season in goals-against-average, while the Hawks finished first place in league standings and were entering weekend action in first place in the playoff round robin standings.
On Saturday, a strong commitment by the Warriors to their defensive game kept the Oakridge shooters to the outside shooting lanes and held the game scoreless after the first period. The second period was setting up to be a carbon copy of the first with neither team finding the back of the net when Jonas Schmidt opened the scoring with only five seconds left on the clock, assisted by Cole Meadows and Ethan Martin. The Aeros responded in the third with a hard shot to the upper half of the net from the blueline to knot the score at one. Sam Jeffery and Wes Duiker led with particularly strong defensive efforts for the Warriors to make the final score 1-1.
On Sunday, the Warriors had an opportunity to sweep the playoff home-home series against the playoff leading and regular season champions Hawks. The Warriors opened the scoring in the first off the stick of Ethan Martin, assisted by Thomas Sheldon. The Hawks responded with the lone goal of the second period, with both teams having several opportunities to take the lead. In the third, the Hawks opened up the game with strong puck pursuit, scoring three unanswered goals to make it a 4-1 final. The Warriors had several occasions to find the net in the game, drilling several pucks past the goalie and finding the goal post more than one time in the contest. James Hopper made a couple key saves in the second to keep the score knotted at one apiece, while Kaden Brame and Cole Meadows played a solid game at both ends of the ice throughout the game.
Next action for the Warriors is not until Saturday, when they welcome the North London Nationals to town.