Written by Dave Graff. The SMHA
Scotiabank Major Peewee Rep team took to the ice Thursday and Saturday in
Alliance hockey action and turned two solid team efforts into two home ice
wins.
Thursday in Stratford the home side kids again were slow out of the gate finding themselves down 2-0 early to Woodstock but stuck together in a hard fought physical game and came back for a 7-4 victory. Late in the first period Owen Duiker buried a rebound off of a Sydnie Miller shot to close the gap to one after one period. Ethan Aarts also assisted on the opening Warrior goal. Early in the second period defenseman Owen Gemmell intercepted a Navy Vet pass in the neutral zone and quickly sent Erik Smith and Josh Nixon in on a two on one with Nixon scoring to tie the game at 2 goals apiece. Two more goals by the visitors put the Warriors down 4-2 after two periods but similar to their play of late Stratford owned the third period outshooting Woodstock 12-2 and outscoring them 5-0. After a highlight reel unassisted goal by Braydon Tinning closed the gap to 4-3, Zach Carman tied the score from Nixon and Nathan Graff midway through the third period. Inside of four minutes remaining Aarts, off a neutral zone feed from Jack Whitehead burst in the right side of the Navy Vet zone and made no mistake going top shelf to score what turned out to be the winning goal. After some spirited play in the Warrior end by both teams and some stellar defensive work by the home side to keep the puck away from their goal, Nixon and Caleb Musselman both tallied into the empty visitor goal to cement the victory for Stratford.
On Saturday also in Stratford the Warriors got a third period goal from Caleb Musselman and then held on for the final four minutes in a 2-1 win over Sarnia. The teams traded second period goals. Jack Whitehead gave the Warriors a brief lead after an excellent individual effort down the left side ended with a short side shot beating the Sarnia goalie. A Sting goal later in the second period set the stage for Musselman to score the power play winner in the third with assists going to Josh Nixon and Minor Peewee call up Jacob Hall. Both Stratord goalie Tallyn Soper and the visiting tender made several solid saves to keep this one a low scoring affair.