Feb 07, 2015 | Patrick Watson | 265 views
Playoff Round 1, Game 1
Holy smokes!! Hang on to your hats kids...the playoffs have begun and it's going to be a real battle!! Our opponent, the Aylmer Flames are very good! We are going to need to play our best games of the season to beat these guys.......
well folks, that is exactly what we did this morning in Aylmer. This was probably the best effort I have seen all year out of our team. Every line worked very hard at both ends of the ice and Diaz showed up big time today.
The first period saw great end to end action. After some chances at both ends Gavin took a nice pass from Ben and made a beautiful rush from one end to the other and buried our first goal of the playoffs to make it 1-0 after 1 period of play.
In the second period it was Quin's turn to rush and he didn't miss, the goalie didn't stand a chance after a bullet of a shot made the score 2-0. Cole Abbey was next to score with a beautiful goal assisted by Emily Small and lots of hard work deep in the oppositions end. The Flames were not about to roll over and managed to get the monkey off their back late in the second period making it a 3-1 contest going into the final period.
The 3rd period started with some great goaltending by Diaz and some good defensive hockey by everyone to foil some very close calls. Quin finally got a break and managed to score another beautiful unassisted rush. The celabrating didn't last long because Aylmer was quick to narrow the gap to 4-2 with lots of time left. I was starting to sweat bullets because this opponent was really starting to press and we seemed to be laying off a bit. Diaz made some key saves and managed to keep the puck out which was a really crucial turning point in this game. It is very tough to win playoff games without solid goaltending. With 1:14 left to play Cole Abbey scored his second of the game.....whew....now I could breath a little easier!!! The Aylmer Flames would not stop however and managed to put one past Diaz with 32 seconds left on the clock. The game ended with a 5-3 victory for the good guys :-)
This is playoff action at it's best and one heck of a hockey game! Congratulations to our Heart & Hustle Award winner Diaz "Big Man" Doxtator. Keep up the great work Diaz!!! You played awesome and the whole team played fantastic today...some other notables are Keely MacLeod's performance lately! Wow she is really stepping up and making a big difference on the ice now. Colton Wilson has displayed some incredible improvement in his skating and position playing. I think he is on the verge of scoring his first goal. Cole Haywood has been improving steadily all season and is on the board now after scoring his first in our last regular season game. Emily Small is a rock solid worker on forward or defense and she contributes 100% every time on the ice. The Elijah brothers made some really nice passing plays today and put forth their best effort of the year. Ben and Gilby have played great defensive hockey needed to help keep the goals against down. Last but not least, our traditional goal scorers Cole Abbey, Quin Wardell and Gavin Hern are playing hard and scoring goals...all this good stuff is what it will take to win this series! Rest up and be ready for another tough battle tomorrow in Mount Brydges. Great job team!
Coach Pat