Nov 29, 2018 | lmusselman | 801 views
Warriors Tame the Purple Mustangs
The last time these teams met they combined to score a whopping 15 goals, with the Warriors eventually taking the road game by a final score of 9-6. This time, the Stratford Bantam Warriors, sponsored by Canadian Tire, hosted the London Jr. Mustangs (Purple) in the return match for a rare mid-week game.
With their sights set on a better team effort defensively, the Warriors wanted to set the tone early in their home rink. Just four minutes into the game, the Warriors jumped out to a 1-0 lead. That goal stood for just over 2 minutes when the Jr. Mustangs took advantage of a Warriors miscue and tapped one into the net to knot the game at 1-1.
In the second period, the Warriors scored the lone goal of the period on Cole Lewis’ second of the game. That goal was the lone scoreboard change in the period, putting the Warriors in front 2-1 heading into the intermission.
In the final period, the Warriors converted a power play opportunity just two minutes in to take a two-goal lead for the first time in the game. Just like in the first period, however, the Jr. Mustangs answered back quickly with a goal off an odd-man rush just :13 seconds after the Warriors’ power play goal. With just over 5 minutes to go, the Warriors restored the two-goal spread and added another to take a 5-2 lead with just under 3 minutes to go. The Warriors outshot the Jr. Mustangs 29-24 in the game, with goalie Curtis Ball making saves look easy as he returned to tend the pipes for the first time in over a week as he was recovering from illness.
On the scoresheet, Lewis and Jacob Hall each scored twice and added two assists. Defenseman Drew Wilken fired the other goal off a blistering shot from the blue line. Issac Deline and Jonas Schmidt added single assists in the game to round out the scoring. Lewis had a fantastic overall game, with some opportunity-squashing back checking and a high-compete level all game. Deline also had a notable game by getting up ice and into the play all game, including some solid rushes to gain the offensive line.
NOTES: With the victory, the Warriors improved to 2-0-2 in league play and moved into a tie for first-place with the Jr. Mustangs with a game in hand; the Warriors finished off the month of November with a record of 6-4-4, including a Silver Stick AA tournament Finalist result; the team is off until Sunday, when they head to St. Thomas to face the Jr. Stars in the first leg of a home-home series with the return match set for Dec 9th at the Allman; the Jr. Stars sit in second place and are the only other undefeated team with a 1-0-3 record; Coach Bubba and Coach Schmidt, along with on-ice helper Erik Anderson and Skills Clinic Instructor Joey Hishon Jr. are all playing for the “Cullitons” team in this Saturday’s Warriors/Cullitons Alumni Game; all students who wear their jersey to the game gain free admission (the boys have decided to wear our home BLUE jerseys to the game to avoid mustard stains on the beautiful Whites).