The Evoke Marketing Tier I Warriors used a tenacious offense and meticulous defense to perfection and came away with a 4-0 victory over the first place West London Hawks, March 10.
Eliminated from the playdown round the previous weekend, the Warriors entered the game playing for pride and to send a message that true Warriors never give up. Despite playing minus two skaters (Caleb Hurley and Parker Glitz), the young squad came out flying offensively and rarely allowed the Hawks out of their own end. Owen Martin, Ethan Bridges, Alex Erb, Ethan Schmidt, Luke Hishon, Colton Campbell and Jason Adair were joined on forward by defenders Cohen Bowles and Ryder Duchesne. Together with defenders Nate Meadows, Nick McGill, Ryan Watling and Liam Micks they were tenacious on the puck and it prompted the Hawks to take a tripping penalty less than two minutes in. The Warriors took advantage a minute and a half later when Duchesne feathered a beautiful pass across to Schmidt and he hammered it home with 6:38 to go in the first. The Hawks weren't able to break through the defensive juggernaut until 2:33 remained in the first but Mac Munro was there to make the save to keep it 1-0.
Early in the second the Warriors were forced to kill off a penalty of their own. The Warriors sacrificed their bodies to block shots, Munro flashed the glove and the penalty killers quickly cleared it out of harm's way. It was a critical kill. And a minute later Bowles and Watling earned assists as Hishon picked it up in the high slot and ripped a shot over the glove for a two goal cushion with 5:49 to play in the second. Munro came up with a huge glove save moments later and the Warriors responded by dominating play the rest of the period.
Four minutes into the third, the Warriors got the chance to add to the lead when the Hawks were called for body contact. With 18 seconds to go in the advantage, Duchesne picked it up off the faceoff, stepped over the blueline and ripped a shot that the netminder got a piece of but it went up and over. The Hawks turned up the heat as the Warriors seemed to let up a little and Munro rose to the challenge making several good saves to thwart the Hawks attackers. The Warriors quickly regrouped and found their tenacious play especially after the Hawks pulled their goalie with three and a half minutes left. With a minute and six seconds left, Bridges fed Martin in the neutral zone. He sealed a 4-0 victory with a backhand beauty from just inside the blueline, while fighting off two defenders.
It was by far the Warriors best game of the season with great offense, defense and goaltending.
While missing the playdowns is disappointing, the 'Comeback Kings' can still hold their heads up high knowing they battled hard in a very competitive Tier 1 West division. They finished the season as semi-finalists in the St Thomas tournament, Silver medalists in the AA championship division of the Randy Merten/Dan Holland tournament in Belle River and as Hespeler Olympics Cup Champions!
Big things to come from this fierce squad!