The last two weeks of hockey before the extended Christmas
break were full of excitement for Wolves fans, with the team pulling off some
impressive wins and fabulous plays, as well as banding together as a team to donate toys for Christmas.
A trip down to the lake saw the Wolves and Bulldogs engaged in an entertaining, high scoring, and tense fight. Spectators were already exhausted with the wild ride by the end of the second period, with the score standing at 4-3 to Burlington. And they definitely needed their seatbelts strapped on tight for the third period, which started off with the Wolves tying it up for 4-4. The Wolves then nudged ahead for 5-4, with an almost immediate response from the Bulldogs, getting back to 5-5, with 8:43 left in the game. The stands were full of white knuckles, as the Wolves struck again with 5:10 remaining, taking them up by one. And with 2:57 left, another goal from the Wolves took them up by 2. No-one was letting go until the last whistle sounded, and the roller coaster ride was over, leaving spectators and players alike exhilarated, but with rather wobbly legs. A win recorded for Waterloo, with a 7-5 final score.
A road trip to Woodstock was the first game back from injury for the Wolves' goalie, and Woodstock were out to give him a bit of a run early on. A couple of good rushes from the Wolves punctuated some impressive offensive efforts from the Navy Vets. With two minutes to go in the first, the score was nil all, but it wasn't going to stay that way. Woodstock scored 3 goals in that 2 minutes, with two coming in the last 15 seconds. After that rough session, the coaches substituted goalies for a bit of time, giving the returning guy a bit of a break to clear his head, and the sub a chance to make several nice saves, before switching them back. The team really started to rally at that point, with some nice defensive efforts, but Woodstock kept up the pressure throughout, with the second period ending at 5-0 to Woodstock. Both teams started out the third period with some good chances at goals, but the goalies shut them down. Woodstock broke through for a final goal with five minutes left on the clock, and the score stood at 6-0 through to the final buzzer, despite some nice shots by the Wolves near the end of the game.
In an away game in St Thomas notable for the excellent musical choices of the guy running the speaker system, Waterloo dominated in the first period, scoring two goals and keeping possession for long stretches of play. The second period, though, saw St Thomas come roaring back to match the Wolves' two with two of their own and tie it up, despite some impressive defensive plays. The Wolves then took the opportunity provided by a power play to put into practice some passing and patience to set up a goal in which the whole team should have been given an assist, making it 3-2 going into the last period. First blood of that period went to the Wolves as well, with a great goal scoring from right on the blue line. Unfortunately for the spectators' blood pressure, St Thomas were not about to give up. For the remaining 7 minutes, they were relentless in their attacks, with only some outstanding defensive measures and great moves from the goalie keeping the puck out of the net. But with less than minutes left, a decisive penalty was called against the Wolves, leaving St Thomas up a player, and pushing even harder. The Wolves tried making some offensive moves of their own (one player almost getting a goal on a breakaway while short handed), but when St Thomas also pulled the goalie, the extra pressure was too much, and the Wolves were left with a one goal lead, one man up (following a St Thomas penalty) and 1:51 left in the game. With only 15 seconds to go, St Thomas were pushing the puck forward to the Wolves', but were controversially called for icing. The ref gave the faceoff back at centre ice, and some fabulous play from St Thomas saw them get to the net, but time ran out before they could get a shot off, leaving the Wolves to claim the 2 points in a very exciting match up.
The last game before the league's Christmas break saw Stratford visiting the Wolves at RIM Park. In a complete reversal of the previous game, the Wolves came out in the first period looking a bit the worse for wear, while the Stratford Warriors had clearly been given their marching orders to aggressively lay siege to the Wolves' net, with a barrage of 10 shots unleashed in the first 10 minutes.* The score stood at 0-0 at the end of the first period, with only some desperate last ditch defensive efforts from the Wolves keeping the invaders at bay. The second period, though, saw the Warriors' attacks yield success, with the scoreboard recording 1-0 to Stratford by the end of the period. A battle weary Wolves squad returned to the bench for their final orders, and whatever they were, they worked. The Wolves came out a different team, bursting out from behind the ramparts with some fine attacking plays. The team combined to score twice in the last period, and just missed out on pulling off a hat-trick for the guy who finished the plays. Meanwhile, the defence were stalwart, refusing to allow a further breach. The final score ended 2-1 to the Wolves.
It wasn't all hockey all the time, however. The boys also managed to find the time to go shopping as a group for presents to donate to the Angel Tree. Merry holiday season to all, and to all a good holiday hockey tournament.
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* Admittedly, this is a rather slower shot rate than the IIHF record 2.4 shots per minute when the Slovak women played Bulgaria in 2008.