Dec 28, 2012 | Joe Heinisch | 196 views
Team Allstate Moves to 2-0 in Christmas Tournament
Friday December 28, 2012
Game Reporter: Jay Nijhuis
The reason why Hockey is such a beautiful sport is that when all the pieces of the team work together it's like a symphony on ice. Well, it was like watching the London Philharmonic perform Beethoven's 5th today at RIM Park as Team Allstate Insurance remain undefeated in the Christmas tournament after a 5-3 victory over Team Libro Financial.
At this level of hockey, most coaches don't like to bring up games from the past, but Coach Joe felt it was important to remind the boys that this was the team that spanked us earlier in the year 6-1 and that Team Allstate Insurance had the perfect opportunity for revenge as a win against Team Libro Financial today would be enough to knock them out of the Tournament. Coach Ray also took the opportunity to remind the boys that they are NOT the same team they were, they are a more focused, harder working team with a reputation as a "hard team to play" against.
For the second game in a row Nolan S. was between the pipes and was ready to face the stiff challenge of shutting down the first place and highest scoring team in the league. Team Allstate Insurance had their work boots on early in this game forechecking Team Libro Financial into the ice and not letting them have any time to attack.
Jack L. scored first for the boys in black on a weird play. The puck stopped just short of clearing the blue line and then Jack skated into the zone, picked up the loose puck and broke in all alone to make it a 1-0 game. It was pretty hard to wipe the smile off of his face, for a kid that normally plays goalie, he looked like a sniper on that tally.
Early in the second, Logan N. grabbed a loose puck on the boards and threw it in front of the net, Liam J. fanned on the shot but Devin I. followed up on the play and poked in the puck to give Team Allstate a 2-0 lead. That goal celebration was short lived however as shortly there after Elliott D. was given a 4:00 min penalty. Not only did the boys kill it for Elliott, but Captain Joe V. skated through Centre Ice to pick up a stray puck and proceeded to bust down the left hand boards, cut to the net and slip a short handed goal through the legs of the Team Libro Goaltender for a 3-0 lead after the 2nd period. This reporter does not have the official shots on goal stats, but I believe Team Allstate may not have given up a shot on goal in the first 2 periods.
Team Allstate Insurance knew it would be next to impossible to shut down the highest scoring team in the league, and the 5 period shut out streak of Nolan S. was broken early in the third when a rocket wrist shot beat him high glove to make it 3-1. You could cut the tension with a knife in the stands as the fans knew that this Libro Financial Team can score goals in bunches and that first one could lead to many more. Luckily, nobody told Ty C. to be nervous as he restored the 3 goal lead moments later by sneaking a back hander through the goalie's legs.
Team Libro Financial kept their biggest threat on the ice for pretty much the entire third period and it paid dividends as he scored two more times, both being top corner wrist shots that Nolan S. had no chance on. The scoring wrapped up late in the third period as Ty C. slammed home his own rebound for his second goal of the game. That was enough for Team Allstate Insurance to secure a 5-3 victory and move to 2-0 in the Christmas Tournament.
That win should get the boys in black into the semi finals on Sunday. Game time and opponent is yet to be decided. The final game of the round robin goes tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm at RIM Park Pillers Arena against another strong team in Schlueter Chevrolet.
Revenge could also be sweet as this was the team that scored twice on Team Allstate in the final 3 minutes of a game to steal a victory earlier this season.