Dec 28, 2013 | slafay | 424 views
Warriors Push Jr Knights Green to the Limit
Stratford Royal Lepage Hiller Realty minor Peewees lost an epic battle to the heavily favoured, and eventual tournament champions, London Jr Knights Green Saturday afternoon in the Silver Stick qualifier semi- finals at Allman arena.
London opened the scoring with 4:28 left in the first frame but Stratford responded right back a minute later when Josh Dowling won a battle for the puck deep in his zone and fed it up the wing to Adam Montieth who streaked up the left side and beat the London goalie to tie the game at one. After the Knights scored to go up 2-1, Jared Lesouder knotted the game at 2, three minutes into the second frame on the powerplay from Cohen Lesouder.
Raymond Horan hustled to the net a minute later and jammed a rebound off a drive by Mitch LaFay to put the Warriors in the lead which lasted deep into the third period before London tied the game with 4:23 left to play.
The final minutes of the game saw good chances at both ends but the Jr Knights prevailed with a goal late in the third frame that stood up as the winning goal despite the great effort by the Warriors with the extra attacker on the ice.
Ryan Bell stood tall in net behind a gutsy performance by every single Warrior player who could leave the rink with their heads held high knowing they competed extremely well with a highly ranked AA team from London.
Stratford opened the tournament Friday morning with a tough loss to the Waterloo Wolves Gold team 3-1 after going into the third period tied 1-1. Waterloo opened the scoring three minutes into the game but Stratford responded with seven seconds left in the first period when LaFay scored a powerplay goal. Lesouder started the play down low moving the puck to Bryce Lee at the point who drew the Wolves forward and slipped it to LaFay at the half wall who drove the seam and fired a low wrister home.
The play went end to end throughout the second and third period with Waterloo capitalizing on their chances while the Warriors were unable to bury theirs.
Carson Knott was solid in goal while while the entire defense corps: Callum McMann, Cohen Lesouder, Tyler Pogson, Dowling, Alex Cassone, and Lee competed fiercely all morning.
Friday evening was a break out game for the Warriors as they bounced back from the morning loss and blew Orangeville out 5-1. Mason Petrie took a nice feed from Lesouder in the slot and buried a wrister to open the scoring. After Orangeville answered back, Lesouder took a feed from Pogson high in the slot and fired a wrist shot in off the post. Ryan Bell stoned the most dangerous Orangeville forward on a break away off the ensuing face off keeping his team in the lead 2-1.
The Warriors responded when Lee fed a pass to Noah Rusen-Steele down low in the offensive zone who found Adam Windsor out front who fired a high wrist shot home over the goalie's shoulder which chased him from the game.
Dowling welcomed the new goalie to the game banking a hard slap shot in off a defender and Lesouder put the icing on the cake banking a second shot in off a defender to round out the scoring. Kaden Eybergen and Aly McLeod set the tone up front with an aggressive forecheck and hard work on the wall all evening.
That hard work finally paid off Saturday morning for McLeod as she continued her strong play and was rewarded with both the Warriors goals in a 3-2 loss to Woodstock. Woodstock opened the scoring but Mcleod took a feed from Lesouder and Horan and buried a high wrist shot to tie the game and then put the Warriors up 2-1 when she fired her second goal through the five hole less than a minute later taking a nifty little pass from Horan high in the slot. Woodstock tied the game mid way through the third frame and then won the game on a nice individual effort short handed late in the game.
Overall the Warriors competed very well at the AA level and will experience success if they carry that level of competition into the Bristol league play in the weeks to come.