The Scotiabank Peewee Warriors earned a split on a pair of weekend games.
The usual friendly confines of the Allman arena were not too friendly as the Warriors were soundly beaten by the Kitchener Rangers 7-3 on Saturday night. Stratford came out flat in the opening period, and were badly outshot, quickly falling behind 2-0. The second period saw much of the same as the Rangers exploded for three goals to take a commanding 5-0 lead into the third. Hayden Arms finally solved the Kitchener goalie in the final period, converting a pretty pass from Jared Searles. Trent Zorgdrager finished a feed from Dylan Hall for Stratford’s second of the game midway through the final period, but that’s as close as they would get.
On Sunday, the Scotiabank Warriors were on the bus heading to Sarnia to take on the Sting. The team again opened the game flat, spending the majority of the first period in their own end, giving up three Sarnia goals. Dylan Hall opened the scoring for the Warriors late in the first on a solid individual effort which seemed to provide a spark. A determined Stratford team found their legs in the second and the Warriors responded with three unanswered goals. Zach Dow converted a beautiful cross ice pass from Arms to make it 3-2. Carter Lewis then tied the game at three, finishing off some nice passing from the defence. Brett Maguire and Zorgdrager assisted. The Warriors went ahead 4-3 late in the second period when Maguire scored on a shot from the point. Hall drew the assist. Sarnia answered back in the third to tie the game at four but the Warriors never gave up and were rewarded midway through the final period when Hall scored his second of the game to go ahead 5-4. Liam McCann was solid when called on in the second and third periods, allowing just one goal the rest of the way to secure the win.
Next action for the Warriors is Saturday afternoon when they travel to Burlington to take on the Bulldogs.