Sep 14, 2012 | bfallowfield | 615 views
Game 1 - Chiefs 4, Hawks 2
It was a pretty successful start to the 2012-2013 season for the Minor Bantam Chiefs as they travelled down the 401 (or would that be up the 401?) to Cambridge to play the Hawks on Friday evening. After their first 5-day school week, too!
The Hawks came out strong and were hitting everything in site
...to start the game, but all this got them was a couple of penalties. Although the Chiefs did not score on the man advantage, they were able to settle down and get into the flow of the game.
There was no scoring ion the first. Unofficially, I had the Hawks outshooting the Chiefs by a fair margin in the first, but most of those were from outside. That being said, Ashton M. played solid to ensure that the boys did not fall behind.
The Chiefs who opened the scoring in the early minutes of period 2. After 2 unsuccessful powerplays, Curtis A. put the Chiefs in front with a strong move to the net. He did not score on the initial shot but continued whacking at the rebound until it got past the keeper. Not long after, the Chiefs found themselves down a man, but a bouncing puck at the Chief blueline gave the Hawk defender fits and Matthew P. was there quickly to pick it up and sprint away on an uncontested breakaway. He made no mistake with a nice deak and the Chiefs were up 2-0. Late in the period, just as the Hawks killed of a penalty there was a turnover at their blueline and that gave them a breakaway of their own. This time, Ashton stopped the initial shot, but the dreaded trailer was there to knock it in the open cage. All this with just 30 seconds remaining in the period. Hopefully this was not a momentum changer.
Well, of course it wasn't, you all know we won :)
In the third, the Chiefs finally capitalized on one of their powerplays as Shane. B. somehow managed to carom one in off the goalie. With the 2-goal lead restored, we were just going to play it safe and run down the clock. Easier said, than done, apparently as the Hawks took advantage of a defensive zone breakdown and managed a 2-on-1 deep in the CHief zone. One quick pass and shot and it was back to an uneasy 1-goal differential with lots of time remaining.
Undaunted, the CHiefs buckled down and the two Max's (Is little 'M' and Big 'M' OK to use to describe these 2? Little 'M' is not all that little, but next to the other 'M" most everyone is little, so I think I may use this) broke out on a 2-on-1 with Little 'M' carrying the puck. AS Big 'M' bolted to the net, Little 'M' patiently continued directly towards the Hawk goalie and fired a shot - 5-hole - that proved to be the clincher.
The boys had to kill one further penalty, but had few issues with that and skated off the ice with a 4-2 victory,
Solid goaltending, solid defensive play and solid work up front leads to a solid victory. 4 solid's in one sentence - new record.
Now we prepare for the back-to-back games against Lambton Jr. Sting starting at 1:45 Saturday.