March 3, 2007
This game looked like it was going to be a repeat of last weekend’s game with the Cougars getting a lead and allowing it to evaporate with loose skating. However, unlike last week the Cougars regrouped and never allowed the Jr. Shark Girls to regain momentum.
The Cougars had some early scoring chances with Tristan making a great centering pass to a big open space in front of the net and then Vanny to Josh and John to Vanny. On the far side, Spencer and Sebastian were working much better with Spencer staying back and not leaving his feet. John, Paul and Justin also did great work bottling up the middle so Jack only needed to make a few saves in the first period. Kurt was flying and doing great backchecking to frustrate the Girls’ attacks.
With one minute to go in the first Will started a rush down the right side, found Tristan in the middle. Tristan fed back to Will who made a last minute pass back to Tristan for a quick shot and goal. If you are scoring at home, that’s a goal for #12 with assists for #10, #12 and #10.
Early in the second the Cougars added to their lead as Vanny fired a puck off the boards to spring Will who outraced a Jr. Shark defender, shielded the puck nicely and lifted a shot to the north as the Jr. Sharks goalie was going south.
After Paul nearly missed a goal minutes later, Sebastian found Vanny lurking in the middle. Vanny skated to create some room, turned and fired a forehand shot high from the mid-slot.
The Girls scored their first goal as Spencer and Will collided at mid-ice, leaving Sebastian alone on a three on one rush. Neither he nor Jack had much of a chance to stop the much larger ten year old girls on this play. But when the girls scored again and again within the next 75 seconds, the Cougar faithful feared a repeat of last week.
Unlike last week, however, the boys kept their composure and went back to their style of hockey, skating hard against a bigger, stronger team. Less than a minute after the girls’ third goal, Vanny won a faceoff in our end, evaded two Jr. Sharks players and made a great pass to Tristan who was flying down the center of the ice. Tristan gathered in the puck despite some lumpy ice and fired the shot high to the glove side for the score.
Tristan added to the lead in the third period as he back checked the puck from the clearing defense, spun around and fired high again for the Cougar’s fifth goal. Late in the third, Justin did a good job of standing up at the red line and pushing the puck back towards to Will. Will swept the puck towards the goalie from the top of the face off circle. A momentary lack of concentration was all this puck needed to slide under the goalie’s stick and into the net.
As the goal was being announced, Will took the puck off a pass from Sebastian and evaded the Jr. Shark defense for his hat trick goal.
The Cougars skated much harder in this game than last week. The Jr. Shark Girls are much bigger than the boys and they are skating well. The boys needed lots of hustle. In particular, John, Ryan and Josh have really stepped up to make a difference in the last few games and our older players are skated with renewed vigor after the relative torpor last week. When challenged by the girls’ tying goals, the boys fought back and never got down on themselves. That was perhaps the most gratifying aspect of the game. Well done, Cougars!