After a couple of strong pre-season wins, the Waterloo
Wolves Minor Atom A/AA started the regular season with a 3-0 shutout win over
St. Thomas. The Wolves started out a bit
slow managing only four shots on net in the first period with St. Thomas
skating quickly on the puck and testing the Wolves goalie with seven quality
shots. But a strong effort by our
forwards led to a goal before the end of the first frame.
The second period saw a more evenly matched effort with both defensive corps playing a tight checking game leading to only four shots a piece. Wolves forwards had quality chances, but the St. Thomas goalie kept it to a 1-0 game.
The Wolves continued to press hard in the third period and impressed the crowd with keen vision leading to some accurate passing. A risky but impressive break-out move saw a Wolves defenceman “thread the needle” as he passed the puck up through the centre of our end, past a couple of St. Thomas forwards, and onto the tape of the Wolves forward rushing up the middle. Right from the beginning of tryouts, the boys have shown amazing skill at being able to locate and pass to open teammates. The forward were able to convert two more goals on four shots by their strong play in front of the St. Thomas net. On one play, our centre rang a shot from the hash-marks off the far post and the winger flipped the rebound in over the sprawling goalie. A beautiful passing play down low led to the third goal.
It was a free-flowing game with both teams playing well, but strong back-checking by the forwards, tight play by the defence, and strong positional play by the goalie made the shutout win a team effort.
Congratulations, Wolves, on your first win. We are proud of you!
p.s. You look great in your new team uniforms.