Sunday November 8, 2015
Game Reporter: Jay Nijhuis
With Coach Joe out of town, coach Jeff and Jay were charged with trying to get the Light Blue out of a losing streak. Despite best intentions, it was not meant to be at the Albert McCormick West arena this past Sunday.
Before the game, the coaches reminded the players about all the things they did so well the last game. Asking players to remember their jobs in both the offensive and defensive zones of the ice, and to remind them that our team always works hard and gives maximum effort for their teammates.
The Black team had the same record as us going into the game and a very strong lineup of players, we knew we'd have to work hard to compete and win. The game started off well, our guys were forechecking hard and not allowing Team Black's big guns any space or time to get things going. After two periods it was only 2-0 Black, with one of those goals coming on the Power Play. Coach Jay let the boys know that despite the score, he believed we were the better team and if we kept working hard the goals would come.
Unfortunately, the Penguins got into penalty trouble early in the third period, including a 5-3 where Team Black scored twice. Our boys were reeling and just couldn't mount any counter attack being down a man so many times. True to our team philosophy, we never stopped playing hard and managed to score two goals late in the third to make the final score 5-2 which seems a lot more respectable than 5-0. Jackson D. and Devin I. scored our goals and Alex S. made some incredible saves early in the game to keep us in the game. Pretty much all the goals scored on Alex in the third were rebounds off of great saves, and with all the penalties we just didn't have the man power to clear out the extra man from the crease.
Our record now drops to 1-3-1 and we have a very busy weekend with two games. The coach's would LOVE a practice this weekend, unfortunately we will just have to try and teach as we play in a game situation.
Thanks to Murray C for putting together the player cards for the parents so they know the names of all the boys on the team, and parents can now cheer for them by name.
We'll see you at the rink this coming weekend.
Click here to see game photos.