The Evoke Marketing Tier I Warriors did all the little things right, February 24 and it paid off with a 4-2 victory over the Oakridge Aeros.
The Warriors opened the weekend against the West London Hawks, February 23 minus Ethan Bridges and came out sluggish but the 'Comeback Kings' staged a third period rally that came just short of its target, losing 4-3.
The Hawks capitalized on a power play midway through the first and then found the top corner behind Malaika Kibedi late in the first. The Hawks took advantage of another power play midway through the second to take a 3-0 lead. Kibedi got a piece of it but it went upstairs. Mac Munro came in unfortunately the Hawks made it 4-0 a couple minutes later.
Not prepared to give up, the 'Comeback Kings' clearly heard the message between periods and came out fired up in the third. The defense Nate Meadows, Cohen Bowles, Nick McGill, Ryan Watling, Ryder Duchesne and Liam Micks shutdown the Hawks' attack with the backchecking of Caleb Hurley, Owen Martin, Jason Adair, Ethan Schmidt, Luke Hishon, Colton Campbell, Alex Erb and Parker Glitz limiting the Hawks to three shots in the third. It allowed the offense to kick it into high gear. Thirty two seconds into the third, Martin fed a cross ice pass to Adair on the right side and he ripped a shot into the net to cut the deficit to 4-1. On the next shift, Micks and Hishon combined on a beautiful passing play to find Campbell alone out front and he was there to slip it past the netminder. Midway through the frame and with the teams playing four on four Watling's point shot was stopped but Martin hammered the rebound in to make it 4-3 with 7:37 to go. Munro made a nice save with the shaft of his stick to keep the Warriors in the game.
On February 24, the Oakridge Aeros were in town and with a full squad the Warriors came out flying, building on the tenacious play of the third period versus the Hawks. The Warriors pressed for the opening goal but couldn't connect and late in the first Munro came up with two nice glove saves getting just enough to knock it wide. On the next shift, Erb fed Martin and he made a brilliant cross ice pass to Bridges and he put it just under the crossbar to open the scoring at 1:11.
Forty eight seconds into the second, Schmidt found Hishon in the neutral zone and he beat the defender and roofed it glove side for a 2-0 lead. Munro came up with five crucial saves in the second, including one with Oakridge shorthanded to keep it 2-0 through two periods.
In the third, the Warriors were sacrificing their bodies to block shots and limit chances. Munro continued his best game of the year with several beautiful saves as the Warriors struggled to handle the renewed Aeros attack. With Stratford killing a penalty, Watling poked the puck away from an attacker into the neutral zone to Hurley. He raced in alone and fired a low shot to make it 3-0 with 9:50 remaining. Oakridge cut the lead to 3-1 less than two minutes later. With two and a half minutes left, Micks became Bobby Orr picking it up behind the net and driving up the right side before snapping a shot short side to make it 4-1. Oakridge cut the lead to 4-2 with 1:18 remaining but that was as close as they could get.
The Warriors will need to continue their tenacious play of the last four periods as they attempt to climb into the fourth and final playdown spot.