Green, Green... The Last Unbeaten Team!
Due to a couple of Major Atom teams taking part in tournaments this season, the ATOMc Blue Fireballs being one of them, parts of the schedule needed to be reorganized, and this weekend’s games on back-to-back days were some of the results. After a tough loss to ATOMc Black the previous day, the Fireballs were set to play ATOMc Green, the only team Blue had not yet defeated this season. The boys were ready for a tough game as they marched down the hall, ready to take to the ice.
Both teams started quickly, and
the pace of the game was fast from the moment the puck hit the ice. Just past the four minute mark, ATOMc Green
capitalized on a play when they overwhelmed the single defenceman in front of
the net and scored on a pass from the wing.
However, Blue bounced back
immediately! Green won the face-off,
and one of their players carried the puck into the Fireballs’ zone, where he
was immediately pounced upon by Tony R.
Like a cat going after a ball of string, Tony refused to let up until he
got what he wanted. Upon acquiring the
puck, Tony passed it quickly to Riley D. in the neutral zone, and Riley took
off like a shot towards the Green net.
With a deke to the left and a step to the right, he moved around the
opposing goalie to put the puck in the net and even the score at one a mere
twenty-six seconds after Green had scored the game’s first goal.
The Fireballs were in the groove
today, and the boys were playing a very heads-up game of hockey. On one occasion over the next couple of
minutes, Tony R. picked up the puck with some open ice and decided to skate
with it (a new habit he had picked up from someone other than his father). In response, James R. smoothly slipped back
into the defensive spot to fill the hole at the point, making sure the position
was covered while, at the same time, showing how well the team was gelling.
While on the powerplay and with
just under two minutes remaining in the period, the Fireballs took the lead,
when Jackson M. passed off the puck to Jett S. and, along with Lucas B. on the
right wing, rushed into the offensive zone.
Both Jackson and Lucas applied a great amount of pressure on the
retreating Green defenders, each receiving attention from one of the opposing
players. This left the target clear for
Jett, whose beautiful wrist shot sailed over the goalie’s shoulder and into the
net, giving ATOMc Blue a 2-1 lead.
The boys refused to slow up in
the final two minutes of the period.
Matthew M. nearly made the score 3-1 when he skated hard after the puck
as it careened into the Green end. His
digging paid off, as it earned him a scoring opportunity and a great deal of
cheering from the crowd.
With thirty seconds remaining in
the period, the Fireballs found themselves killing off a penalty, but a
highlight reel glove save by Luke C. stymied Green’s best attempt at evening
the score before time ran out. Going
into the second, ATOMc Blue held on to a slim 2-1 lead.
For the first minute-and-a-half
of the second period, the Fireballs continued to kill off a penalty while
maintaining steady pressure upon ATOMc Green.
Ryan S. helped keep the puck in the offensive zone by fore-checking strongly
and prolonging his team’s scoring opportunities, therefore preventing the
opposition from getting any of their own.
With mere seconds remaining on
Blue’s penalty, Jett S. broke quickly towards the Green net and used his
backhand to get a shot on the goalie.
When this attempt was pushed aside, he picked up the rebound and whipped
around the net, depositing the puck in the open corner for a short-handed marker
and a two-goal Fireballs’ lead.
Opportunities this period came
from the blue line, as well. Michael R.
used his strong shot to send the puck towards the net for his teammates to tip,
while his defence partner, Josh R., used his stick-handling and strong
wrist-shot to deke out oncoming Green players and give himself great scoring
opportunities from the point.
One suspenseful moment in this
period occurred when two Green players broke out of their own zone with the
puck, having bypassed a pinching Blue defender.
They nearly had a 2-on-0, but they didn’t know that Calder W. was in hot
pursuit! He turned on the jets, and
caught up to the puck-carrier quickly.
When he reached his target, Calder overwhelmed the opposing player and
lifted his stick, causing the boy in Green to over-skate the puck, therefore
disarming the threat.
Both fore-checking and back-checking
were effective, and ATOMc Green found it difficult to get near Luke C. in net
to even attempt to shrink Blue’s lead.
Halen R. was on fire, as he skated hard in both directions to either be
the first to the puck or stop an opposing player from advancing towards the
goal. Efforts like Halen’s
prevented Green from gaining any ground
in the second, and the score after the middle frame remained 3-1.
The third period began quickly,
with Jett S. winning the face-off and moving quickly down the ice. His rocket of a shot dinged loudly off the
post before bouncing out in front of the net, where an attentive Jackson M.
picked it up and banged it home to put the Fireballs up 4-1. When the whistle blew, the clock informed
viewers that it had only taken nine seconds to score this goal!
Four minutes later, ATOMc Blue
was at it again, when James R. passed the puck quickly and accurately across the
ice to Sam Z. who was parked in front.
Sam wasted no time as he shot the puck at the goalie. Although his first attempt was saved, his
second was not, and the Fireballs continued to distance themselves from ATOMc
Green on the scoreboard.
On defence, the line of Carson A.
and Mason D. held the line and refused to let anyone by them. Carson maintained his belief that early
prevention avoids problems later by poke-checking opposing puck carriers as
soon as they crossed the line, sometimes completely throwing their team offside
in doing so. Mason tended to let Green players
get a little further, drawing them in like a snapdragon, before attacking and
stripping them of the puck before they could blink an eye.
In net, Luke C. wasn’t giving
opposing players a second chance to make up for errors in judgment. When ATOMc Green took a shot, they had to be
successful on the first try, because Luke was not giving up rebounds, but
instead smothered the puck to avoid any further damage.
Concerning defensive play, Lucas
B. played fantastically this game and, by back-checking relentlessly, he helped
his team shut down almost every scoring opportunity their opponents had.
Despite all this great play, the
game’s final goal was scored by Green with just over one minute remaining in
the period. It came as the result of a
quick change of possession in the opposition’s end, which caught Blue’s defence
in the middle of a line change. Although
Tony R. raced on to the ice and attempted to stop the attempt, neither he nor
Luke C. could do anything to prevent the beautiful wrist shot from hitting the
top corner to make the final score 5-2.
The boys had played a fantastic
game! They could now claim to have
defeated each team in the league at least once, which, given the quality of
hockey being played in the WMHA’s Major Atom division, was quite a feat! Josh R. was rewarded for his excellent
play during this game as well as his consistent efforts throughout the season
with the Gold jersey for Player of the Game.
Great game, boys! Our next one is schedule for 7:00am Saturday,
February 2nd at Albert McCormick East. We’ll be playing the very difficult ATOMc
Gold team, so bring you’re A-game! See
you all then!