Submitted by Rob Nyenhuis
Warriors give up two late goals in third period ending day one 0-1-1
The Canadian Tire Stratford Major Peewee MD Warriors hit the ice Early Friday morning taking on the Cambridge Hawks at the RBC arena. A sluggish start put the Warriors down a goal in the first and pressure from the Hawks put the Warriors on their heels for the remainder of the first.
The Warriors pushed back in the second with a knock in from Liam Olsen assisted by Dylan Abel tying things up for the third frame where the home crowd hoped the Warriors would finally shake off their heavy feet. Instead, the Hawks kept pressure up on the Warriors – thwarting the establishment of any productive puck cycling on Warriors power plays and deflated the boys with 2 unanswered late period goals taking game one of the tourney 3-1.
Game two put the boys up against the Oakridge Aeros for a matinee at the Allman. They hit the ice a much more inspired bunch. The lead from the morning skate gave way to a hop in their step and a determination to not repeat the morning’s performance. Down 1-0 in the first the warriors began the show their bench and the home crowd sustained power play pressure with a 45 second 5 on 3 in the second – it showed the promise of the team coming together and most importantly a sign of goals to come. Just a minute into the third Ellis Schnurr grabbed a feed from Sam Binns behind the boards and quickly shoved the puck past a bewildered Oakridge backstop tying the game 1-1. A minute later with sustained offensive pressure Rowan Smith deflected a midair wrister from the point from Bennett Nyenhuis putting the Warriors up 2-1. With 9 minutes to kill off the game the Warriors got into penalty trouble giving up a goal on the penalty kill from the side of the net from an impossible angle tying things up again 2-2. The Warriors staved off late Aero pressure giving up a late penalty by making sure that they would do anything to let the Aeros know that net minder Sippel would be protected. The Warriors ended the game on the penalty kill but not without a spectacular late game rush by Spencer Murphy who shot the puck off the Aero’s goalie’s head in a late game drive to win it.
In a post-game interview assistant coach Dean Smith said the boys are showing some early season promise and that they need to come together positionally and begin to make quicker decisions with the puck to be able to move it more effectively on the attack.
The Canadian TireMajor PeeWee MD Warriors need to close out their round robin play Saturday with two W’s to get a chance at Sunday’s Home town tourney’s glory .