Two points each for Stratford Major Peewees and London in the first weekend of the Playdown Round. - by Erin Heisz and Dale Zorgdrager
The Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Rep Warriors had a 7-4
loss in London to start their
new play down series against GLHA Mustangs Purple. The
Warriors shook it off and played
some great defence to win the next night’s game 3-1!
Game #1 — Major Peewee Rep Warriors vs GLHA Mustangs Purple
The Scotiabank Major Peewee Jr. Warriors travelled to London to open a 6 point series against
London Mustangs Purple. While the Warriors, being the higher seed held home ice advantage
for this series, the schedule had the Warriors on the road to begin, with the second and third
games scheduled to be in Stratford.
Just seconds into the game Owen Holloway attacked the front of the net and the puck deflected
in off the side of his skate into the back of the net. While the Warriors didn’t see it the same
way, the goal was called off by the ref on account of being kicked in. The Warriors stayed
strong and not long after Ayden Hakkers won an offensive zone draw, broke free from the
opposing centre that couldn’t hold him back and put a low shot through the goalie. Later in the
first period Hakkers won another O-zone draw over to Kaden Brame who put it back to Sam
Jeffrey on defence. Jeffrey let a great shot go from the point that fooled the Mustangs goalie
when it changed directions slightly off a mustangs player. 2-0 Warriors. The Warriors took their
first penalty of the game with 2:43 to go and in what would prove to be a trend this game the
Mustangs capitalized with a power play goal. The score after the first was 2-1 Stratford.
The first half of the second period was back and forth. There were chances both ways,
arguably the best chance going to the Mustangs a few minutes in, but Ryan Middegaal saved a
sure goal by clearing a loose puck out of the crease and preserving the tight 2-1 lead. It wasn’t
long after though when the Mustangs were able to tie this one up at 2. That seemed to give the
Mustangs more momentum and they scored 2 more in the second including also scoring on
their second power play opportunity. Unfortunately the second period saw another Stratford
goal waved off because of the Mustangs goalie pushing the net off, just before the puck crossed
the line.
The third started with 2 more power play goals for the Mustangs in the first 5 minutes, but to the
Warriors credit, even though being down 6-2 they did push back. A goalie change from Kiefer
MacNeil to Liam Parsons did partly get the desired effect from the Warriors players because the
Warriors pushed back getting both an unassisted goal from Jared Gould off a Mustangs
turnover, followed just 2 minutes later by a second goal of the game from Ayden Hakkers to
make it 6-4. The comeback came up short when London scored with 3 minutes to play.
The score ended 7-4. The Warriors made some good plays in this game but overall heard from
the coaches about how as a team they struggled in this game with controlling their emotions,
both as it related to penalties taken, which clearly hurt the team this game with 4 goals allowed
by the usually strong PK, and through how the team reacted when things didn’t seem to go their
way with bounces and calls. They knew they had to regroup and come in refocused for game 2
the next day.
Game #2 — Major Peewee Rep Warriors vs GLHA Mustangs Purple
Both teams appeared to play cautiously in the early first period. Ethan Pearce had the first shot
on net 2 minutes into the game. Liam Parsons in net made some early saves and Zach
Richardson had a nice play to get the puck out of our end. Wes Duiker burnt down the clock on
a Warriors penalty kill by forcing pass after pass from the Mustangs power play. Parsons was
seeing the puck well and catching anything coming his way. The penalty was just over when the
Warriors got another one. Thankfully the PK was back to its unbeatable state and no real
chances were generated against us. Pearce had a short handed break away and deked the
goalie for a shot that just barely got stopped.
The second period started short handed for about 30 seconds. We capitalized on our first
power play when Owen Holloway got the puck to Ayden Hakkers at the blue line who fired it in!
Very quickly after we saw Jared Gould pass to Jake Heinbuch in the slot who shot it on net and
the rebound moved around from Heinbuch back to Gould again. Gould set it up for Cole
Meadows who got us up by 2! Luke Heisz was getting the puck out again and again up to the
forwards. Danny Van Straaten took one of those passes and shot off the crossbar. Another
Warriors penalty saw Duiker working hard to ice the puck. Luke Zorgdrager made strong
defensive moves to stymie London. Richardson and Pearce kept agitating the Mustangs and
rattling their plays to the point where London called an early time out to strategize! Parsons was
making repeated saves when put to the test.
We started the third on a power play and a few shots were fired on the Mustangs net.
Zorgdrager was keeping the puck in the Mustangs end and shooting through traffic from the
point. Heinbuch was moving the puck well. Heisz was holding off the Mustangs rushes and
denying them entry. Warriors were putting huge pressure on the Mustangs and the momentum
seemed unstoppable. Duiker tried to give us a 3 goal lead with a play up at the net. Mustangs
turned around with a break away and scored to make it 2-1. We had 2:46 to play tight D.
Pearce took some pressure off by taking it down to an empty net and passing to Van Straaten
who got an empty netter to give us a 2 goal lead!! Warriors won the game 3-1!
A big post game talk helped pump the kids up about their win and they were congratulated on
their ability to keep emotions in check and play smart for the win! Keep it up Warriors!!