Over a three-day period, the Waterloo Wolves saw 150 minutes
of game action, fired 119 shots on net, threw 76 hits, were rewarded with 16
goals, only allowed 4 goals against and walked away with 6 points helping the
team stroll into the Super Bowl in first place in the Alliance with 40 points.
Not too shabby.
Friday night the Wolves had a critical win in their quest to
finish as top seed topping the Hamilton Huskies 4 to 1 in what was a complete
effort and dominating performance. The Wolves owed Mitch Simmons a better
effort after failing to show up the previous Friday and did just that. Simmons
still had to make some big saves for his team, but the team supported him much
better this time. Matthew Anderson continued his hot streak with a goal from
Tyler O’Hearn. Declan Uniac banged home a goal on a beautiful Carson Bernhardt
rush. Jacob Reid-Brant scored from Cullen Derry and O’Hearn before Cole
Hunsberger notched another goal from Matthew Ball and Uniac.
A weekend with the Wolves would never be complete without
some drama and adversity. I mean what are Saturdays for, right? These players love
to get their coaches’ blood flowing! There is a good chance Ben Pendleton’s
blood was flowing as well after the goaltender faced 13 shots in the second
period and witnessing his team only mustard 5 shots on the Brantford goalie. The
Wolves could have had the game out of reach without Pendleton’s heroics,
instead only trailed 2 – 0, and due to that were able to come back and score
five unanswered goals in the third period to win 5 to 2. Uniac picked up where
he left off Friday getting the Wolves train rolling with a goal from Hunsberger
and Ball. Ball then scored from Hunsberger and Uniac. Hunsberger wasn’t done
there he picked up an assist on Connor Palmers goal sending the puck to Ball
before Ball set up Palmer. Reid-Brant scored a great goal from a nice Yianni
Peppas set up and Caleb Cumming scored from Palmer and Ryan Beckner to seal the
deal for the Wolves.
Super Bowl Sunday saw the Wolves head to Sarnia in style!
The players loaded a coach bus looking to finish the weekend off in the top
spot. And that was exactly what Simmons, and the Wolves did in Sarnia winning 7
to 1. Jake Patterson led the way in the game with a pair of goals with his
first being set up from Griffin Beddis and the second from Cumming. Cole
Ledgister took a break from crushing players to score from Reid-Brant. Anderson
put the final touches on a gorgeous play from Palmer and Bernhardt. Beddis
scored from Beckner and Ball roofed one from Hunsberger. Bernhardt put the
final nail in the coffin as the Wolves saw run time on the clock and got out of
Sarnia as fast as possible to make it to the Super Bowl! Sarnia felt the sting
after the game and not only from the goals scored but from the hits from guys
like Jackson McNichol who rocked several Sarnia players.
It was a great weekend of hockey and as mentioned very
successful, however, the work has only begun and as hard as it is to reach
first place…..its twice as hard to hold onto it! The players and coaches will
get in a couple good practice sessions before they face the Huskies on Thursday
to try and get some much needed ground in the standings. A win would be a big step
towards achieving their first goal of winning the league.
Go Wolves!