Minor Peewee Selects fit to be tied, News, Minor Peewee, 2012-2013, Select (Waterloo Minor Hockey)

Good evening folks, and welcome to Sportsdesk on the Waterloo Sports Network. Tonight the Waterloo Wolves played the Brantford Saints at the Brantford Civic Centre, an arena built at a time when people were a little smaller than now. The visitors found the spectator seats to be compact, the player's bench a little short, and in the men's room the patrons ran the risk of bumping their.....elbows. These teams met back in December and it was a blowout, with Waterloo dominating the Saints 7 to 1. Let's see how it played out this time.

The puck dropped at 6:30pm, with Chris taking the start between the pipes on the Waterloo end. Right off the bat the visiting players seemed to have some trouble staying on their feet, and the puck wasn't sliding as well as expected. Was the ice a little soft? Maybe, but the players looked a little sluggish too, as shown by the way the Saints were skating around the Wolves all through the first period. Less than a minute into the period, a Waterloo player gets a pass at his feet, he does the inevitable "where's the puck shuffle", then Brantford takes control of it and goes on a full-speed breakaway across the ice. Waterloo chases on the back-check but can't reign them in, and Brantford gets on the board with the only goal of the period.

Early in the second period, Jeremy goes on the back-check and puts his body into it, stopping a dangerous Brantford play. Casey moves in to clear it out, sees a nice opening and attempts to go across the yard, but unfortunately gets stripped of it at the point. Nice try. At 3:30 into the period, Waterloo tries to pass the puck from one defensive player to another, but Brantford scoops it up and skates up the middle -- again -- and puts in another beauty of a goal, leaving Waterloo behind by two. But Waterloo doesn't give up. They finally seem to be finding their legs as the second period gets underway. There's a scramble in the Brantford end, Ben and Jeremy set up Curtis who slams it in, making it a 1 - 2 game. Still in the second, Waterloo is back in the Brantford end. Waterloo is setting up the play, Tristan behind the goalie, flips the puck up and over the net, and Xavier slaps it in to tie the game at two.

Part way through the period Emmett takes the net, but has a wardrobe malfunction with his pads but manages to get it fixed after only a short delay. He gets tested soon enough and stops an awkward, bouncy puck. Then he stops a breakaway shot near the end of the period.
 

Now for the third period. At thirty seconds into the period, Nathan and Ian work together, a pass to Spencer, who makes a fantastic shot into the long side, giving Waterloo the go-ahead goal. Now it's 3 to 2, and both teams step up their games. There's a lot of back-and-forth action, plenty of scoring opportunities, but Waterloo can't put it into the net. Their passes keep going into each other's feet, and Brantford keeps skating away from them. With a minute-thirty to go, Brantford pulls their goalie. This 6 on 5 rush is too much for Waterloo. Brantford gets into Emmett's crease and Waterloo can't seem to get them out. There's a shot and a save, another, then finally the puck gets poked in even though it looks like Emmett had control of it. And game ends tied at three goals a piece.