The Waterloo PW Wolves Black
started an arduous final 8 days of the first half of the season with a home
game against St Thomas, a team that had been threatening the best teams all
year.
The Wolves were down two defencemen, and there was only one sub to replace both – but what a game he had! The play of the day was his amazing steal from a St Thomas player who thought he had a clear path to the net. But despite these and some other heroics, the Wolves couldn't quite match the hard-pressing St Thomas team, with the game ending in a 3-1 loss.
Things then moved to the final weekend of this first part of the season - three games in just under three days! Things promised to get exciting and Wolves players, parents and fans were not disappointed on that score.
The Wolves had an excellent first period in the game against the London Mustang Purple team, during which they came close to scoring more than once, and the defence smartly kept the London rushes from turning into too many shots on goal. Indeed, the Wolves opened the scoring in the second period, but the winds suddenly turned and the Wolves finished the second mostly on their heels and with the score 2-1 London. The Mustangs added to their lead to make it 3-1 during a power play in the third. The Wolves made a strong comeback effort, narrowing the gap to 3-2 with a goal from what appeared to be an impossible angle (hey, if you don’t shoot, you can’t score!). But London then made it 4-2 during a scramble in front of the Wolves’ net, with another goal coming in quick succession. To make matters worse, with less than two minutes left to play, a London player crashed the goalie, who is likely of action for some weeks, adding further injury to the scoreboard's 5-2 loss.
Thankfully the Wolves did not let this affect their next two games, and they finished the weekend – and the first half of the season – in grand fashion, thanks to superior backstopping, an exciting surge in scoring by the Wolves’ forward lines, and an overall solid defensive team effort.
The first of the two games was against the Jr. Rangers Blue, who threw at the Wolves everything they had but the Kitchener sink. The Wolves remained in control through most of the game, with the final score of 4-1 reflecting this. Of note, there was an excellent penalty kill by the Wolves during a Kitchener 5-on-3, and an epic shot towards the Kitchener net that deflected the wrong way off the inside of the goal post, prompting some questioning as the whether the nets were maybe a tiny bit smaller in this Kitchener neighbourhood. Anyway, there was good Wolves energy all around in this game.
That energy seems to have carried over to the trip to Sarnia the next day. While the weather was nice and sunny for the trip, the locals’ mood quickly turned somber, as the Wolves took a quick 4-0 lead, after experiencing a few harrowing defensive moments in the early part of the game. Four-minute penalties to the Jr. Sting, who were trying all they could to get back into the game, were not taken by the local crowd in the constructive spirit in which they were intended and culminated in the ejection of some local spectators. By then, the end of the first period, the score was 5-1 Wolves. To their credit, the Sting players did not let the situation rattle them, and fought back hard in the second to make it 5-3. The third period provided additional lively, dynamic interaction between certain elements in the crowd and the referees, resulting in more ejections. Sarnia's players kept pushing hard in the last period, but the Stings met Mr. Stingy in the goalie, who made one great save after another, culminating in a brilliant last-second glove save on a clear breakaway by two Sarnia players. The last shot of the engagement was a hard slap shot by Sarnia…clearly after the final whistle had blown, but nevertheless effortlessly saved. We are looking forward to another return engagement in Sarnia in a couple of weeks, perhaps this time one suitable for younger audiences.
All told, the Wolves ended the first part of the season down one goalie, but otherwise on a winning note and with some tight play on both offence and defence which bodes well for the games and tournaments to come.