Feb 18, 2014 | slafay | 341 views
Warriors Take a Strangle Hold on the Series
Stratford Royal Lepage Hiller Realty Minor Peewee Warriors took a strangle hold on their 6 point series winning game three 5-1 over the London Bandits giving them a 5 points to 1 advantage going into game four Wednesday in London.
Despite coming out of the gate flying and dominating the play the entire first period, the Warriors could not beat an outstanding Bandits goalie as the first period ended scoreless. Then in the second the Bandits began to gain some momentum, but the defence corps of Josh Dowling, Bryce Lee, Cohen Lesouder, Alex Cassone and Tyler Pogson battled hard to prevent the game from tipping the other direction. That combined with multiple timely saves by goalie, Ryan Bell, the game remained tied heading into the third period.
Less than a minute into the third period, the Warriors desire and discipline paid off in a power play opportunity which they cashed in on. Jared Lesouder won the faceoff in the Bandits zone to Mitch LaFay who delivered a saucer pass to Josh Dowling at the top of the umbrella. With an open lane, Dowling fired a wrister on net which Lesouder was able to nicely tip home to finally burst the Bandits' bubble. Minutes later Adam Monteith found Noah Rusen-Steele behind the London net who walked out and fed LaFay in the slot who in turn roofed it over the blocker.
The Warriors continued the scoring spree minutes later when Aly McLeod won a battle deep in her zone, drew the defenceman down the wall and chipped it by him for a streaking Lesouder who wheeled down the left wing, deaked the goalie and slid the third goal home. Minutes later on the power play again, Cohen Lesouder fed it up to LaFay who lead a rush into the Bandits' zone and dropped a pass for Jared Lesouder who fired a low shot that bounced out to LaFay who drove the net and cooly deposited the rebound home for the fourth goal.
After London scored their only goal of the game, Stratford's disciplined competitive play resulted in another power play which lead to McLeod winning an offensive zone puck battle to Jared Lesouder who found Adam Windsor alone on front who showed good hands to pick out of his skates and fire past the Bandits' goalie to cap a five goal third period with three power play goals.