Jan 30, 2014 | Rob Waywell | 924 views
Winning in Hamilton
Hello everyone, and welcome to Sports Desk. Tonight we have a game from Hamilton to report on, with the Waterloo Wolves playing the Hamilton Chedoke Express. What's a Chedoke? Nobody seems to know. There are Chedoke golf courses, hospitals, ski clubs, schools, arenas, and the Chedoke Express Select Major Peewee hockey team. All that, but no just plain Chedoke.
For tonight's game we have Michael filling in for Xavier, Emmett is playing in net instead of Alex, and all the boys are sporting their fresh new white jerseys.
Now for the game. Early in the first we see the referee getting involved with the action as a Waterloo player gives him the old slew-foot, sending him to the floor. Soon after that, the same referee takes the only slap-shot of the game right in the shins. That's one tough ref. At 5:41 Casey B shows some real patient stick-handling as he slides a nice back-hander at the net, but it gets the low pad save. Colin scoops up the juicy rebound, he takes control of it, he waits for the goalie to drop, then throws it over him and in! The rest of the period sees both teams battling hard for the puck at a pace that makes the crowd wonder if they can sustain the frantic action. Later in the period Spencer gets a good piece of the puck, throws it at the net but it's saved, keeping the score at 1 - 0 for the Wolves at the end of the first.
In the second period we see some great examples of the iron-clad Waterloo defence. Zach, Grant, Ben, Dion, Casey H, and Bryce are formidable on the blue line. Early in the period Dion pitches a couple of high bombs from the blue line and almost yields a result. Then, Casey H skates backward as the Express come at him hard, then Casey pushes the puck and the player off-side to put the play in Waterloo's favour. Late in the period Zach takes a page out of Dion's book and throws a high bomb (a Chedoke, maybe?) at the net, and he also nearly puts it in. As the period begins to wind down, Michael and Casey H pass the puck to Josh at centre, he scoots around the defence and slaps his own rebound into the 5-hole for a beauty of a goal! A few seconds later there's a scramble in front of Emmett, and the Express player finds a hole and punches it in to put Hamilton on the board. With 37 seconds to go in the period, Hamilton breaks out for a two-on-none attack. Emmett crouches into his familiar pose, the shot, and a fantastic blocker save keeps it out for what could be the save of the game.
Now partway through the third period Waterloo goes on a power play, but they manage to kill it themselves in their own end. At five minutes to go Grant tries another Chedoke from the point and .... it goes in! Unfortunately it's called off due to a high stick. I think the blue liners are on to something here by chucking Chedokers from the blue line. Only seconds later, the Waterloo forwards fly at the goalie and get him swimming on his back. Colin spanks it in off the Casey B and Spencer assists. Now it's a 3 -1 Waterloo game, and that's how it will end - but not without a little controversy. At the end it looks like the referees are ready to start a 4th period for some reason, but they decide against it and call it a night. No more Chedokes required.