Mar 15, 2014 | slafay | 678 views
Warriors Lose a Close One in Hamilton
Stratford Royal Lepage Hiller Realty Minor Peewee Warriors travelled to Hamilton Saturday evening and lost 4-3 to the hometown Huskies.
The first period was a good one for the visiting team as Stratford generated multiple good scoring chances but were foiled by a combination of hitting goal posts, and a terrific Hamilton goalie. Early in the second frame, the Huskies opened the scoring intercepting a pass inside the blueline and capitalizing on the Warriors turnover. However, Stratford evened the score at one when Kaden Eybergen chipped the puck up the boards to Mitch LaFay who lead a two on one rush down the right side and sauced a pass over to Aly McLeod who remarkably stepped in and swatted it out of the air and into the net before it landed with 1:30 left in the second.
Seconds later, Noah Rusen-Steele took a feed from LaFay high in the Hamilton zone and drove the net and fired a low drive that produced a rebound. He smartly followed up on it and cooly slipped it through the five hole with 51 seconds left in the frame.
However, Hamilton responded with three unanswered goals throughout the third period but the Warriors dug deep and increased the offensive zone pressure which eventually resulted in a Husky penalty. They capitalized on their only powerplay when Josh Dowling took a McLeod feed at the point and feathered a nice shot-pass for Jared Lesouder to tip past the goalie with 3:19 left in the game. Despite good pressure with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, the Warriors fell short of tying game one.