Mar 07, 2017 | Mark Emerick | 625 views
Playoff Finals Game 1
The Great White Atoms played the first game of our Championship series tonight in Lucan. The team was charged up and ready to play hard after what seemed like a long 9 days since we defeated Thamesford to earn a spot in the Championship series. Everyone is nervously anticipating the result of round one in what is sure to be a tough series so here we go....
The kids came out strong in the first period. Everyone seemed to be playing well and we were getting some opportunities to score but nothing went in the net in the first period. The same can be said for Lucan in the first period, they had a good number of opportunities but we managed to keep the puck out of our net.
The second period started off much like the first, the goalies were making lots of nice saves at both ends and as a result, the game stayed scoreless until the 6:19 mark when DJ Elijah scored the biggest goal of his season after blasting home a loose puck in front assisted by Cole Abbey to give us a one goal lead. Lucan kept playing hard and we were skating right with them, at times it seemed we were being outplayed a bit but overall the game was very even with lots of scoring opportunities.
The third period came along and lots more end to end action was the main story line. I was shaking in my boots every time Lucan skated in our zone. Being a goalie dad can be a bit nerve racking at times but Ben stood his ground and made great saves to help preserve the one goal lead. Mid way through the 3rd a bit of frustration was coming out of our opponents as they took the first penalty with 12:50 left to play. We couldn't capitalize on the power play and the game stayed at 1-0 for what seemed like an eternity. Finally with 3:26 left to play Cole Abbey scored his first goal of the game unassisted on the break away to extend our lead to 2 goals. Time was ticking away and Lucan pulled their goalie with about a minute and a half left to play. Cole Abbey seized the opportunity and scored the open-netter with 1:01 left assisted by Colton Cordeiro and Spencer Emerick giving us a 3-0 lead. Cole was on fire got loose on an adrenaline rush with .34 left and scored a beauty bar-down goal giving us a 4-0 lead. The kids were celebrating what is sure to be a win with such a short time to play. Lucan had other ideas and came in hard and made a hard high shot on Ben, the puck went off his shoulder and into the net giving Lucan one for the score board with 25 seconds left to play. The game ended with a final score of 4-1.
Great job everyone! That was a very solid start against a tough opponent. Let stay pumped and keep the pressure on!
GO COUGARS GO!
Coach Pat
P.S. Cole Abbey takes the 5 bucks tonight with the assist on DJ Elijah's goal.