Feb 27, 2020 | Cemms | 730 views
Weekly Update by Colin Humphrey
On Wednesday night the Stratford Warriors Minor Bantam team braved the wintery roads and headed to Kitchener to face the Rangers for the first game of round 2 of the Playdowns. The first place Rangers are 21-1-2 since the second half of the season started but the Warriors were not intimidated by their record.
The first period started a little slow for both teams but the pace soon picked up and saw goal opportunities at both ends but all shots were shut down by the goalies to end the first 0-0. In the second period the pace continued to grow and a couple goals would sneak by Stratford's net-minder to end the period 2-0 for Kitchener. The Warriors seemingly unphased by the score poured on the pressure and Jericho McNichol would make a big rush and took a hard angle shot and score to bring the Warriors within 1. Soon thereafter Mark Pyzowski would pick up a short pass from Dylan Fischer and net a close range top shelf goal to tie the game. Both teams would battle out the rest of the third frame and go into a 5 minute sudden death overtime round. In the opening minute of OT Jesse Merkel came up with a massive save from a Kitchener break away to keep the Warriors in the game, after that Stratford took control and pounded the Ranger's goalie but couldn’t get anything by him and would settle for the 2-2 tie and take the single point to start the series.
Game 2 will take place at the Molson Arena in Stratford on Saturday night.