In their first game since a tough loss in the Vaughan tournament final, the boys were hungry for redemption. And, as their loyal fans have now come to expect, they didn't make us wait long...
Hello folks, and welcome to another edition of Sportsdesk. It was Sunday December 2nd in the Igloo of Albert East, the Waterloo Wolves played the Brantford Saints in a one-sided showdown that left no doubt who was going to win it, the question was by how much. It wasn't for a lack of skill for the game shown by both teams, but only that one team clearly out-sized and out-played the other. Let's see how she went.
Here's Chris taking the start, looking limber and ready to play. The Wolves take charge early on. No, there wasn't a goal in the first 9 seconds, but the fans didn't need to wait a whole minute to see them get on the board. Brody has it, passes to Zach, then to Spencer who scoots ahead on a solid breakaway, and Goal! Less than a minute later, the play is in the Saints' end, Johnny takes the shot, pad save and the rebound leaves a juicy meal sitting out front of the open net and Tristan slams it in before the goalie can get on top of it, putting the Wolves ahead by two. Still at only 3 minutes into the game, Josh with a smart pass back to Ian who rips one off from the point and over the goalie's shoulder to make it a three-nothing game.
But the Saints put some pressure on, showing patience and skill. A Saints breakaway, but Chris is all over it. He locks eyes with the shooter and he can't be deeked out, making a beauty pad save. Late in the first, Curtis makes a textbook pass to Ben who puts one in to make it 4 - 0.
After the first intermission, I'm sure the Saints wish they could just start this one all over, but the bleeding continues early in the second. Now watch the replay on this one. Ian sees the opening, gets a full head of steam but see here as he just starts to lose the puck. But rather than lose it altogether, he gets just enough stick onto it to pass it over to Johnny, who continues the runaway play by tipping it to Curtis, and BAM! It's 5 nothing.
The Saints have some nice looking plays but are getting manhandled by the Wolves, as shown by this play with Xavier going after the puck, puts his meat hooks on the Saints player and just says, "I'll take that," and skates away with it. Brantford takes it back, and their forward lets loose a nice fall-away shot but gets shut down by Chris. Still in the second, it's Ian passing to Josh, then to Xavier who shows some fancy footwork by out-deeking the goalie and now it's 6 - 0.
The play gets underway, and we see Jeff on the bench taking a puck in the melon. Wait, he's still smiling, so it looks like no harm done.
Now on to the third. Halfway through we have Ian doing a classic Bobby Orr. He takes advantage of a messy line change by the Saints and takes it all the way North to South, skating around the entire team and brings it home, making it a 7 - 0 game.
Less than a minute later, Brantford knocks down the Waterloo defense and steals the shutout by putting one past Emmett. Now they're gaining some momentum, lots of chances, while the officiating seems to fall off the rails. At 2:41 Ian goes in the box for something or other, but that's not all bad news: Ian has a goal (two, actually), an assist, and now a penalty which makes for, you guessed it, a Gordie Howe hat trick. Nicely done. And that's how the game ends - 7 - 1 for Waterloo.