Oct 08, 2018 | pdavis | 488 views
Game 2: vs Newcastle
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to everyone!!!!!!
There is nothing better on a "family" type weekend then to have family and friends heading to the arena to watch their favourite hockey players.
Thanksgiving Sunday was our Muskies second game of the season and it would be against the Newcastle Stars on the big ice of Pad 1.
I saw friends...parents...grandparents...cousins...sisters and brothers..aunts and uncles all come to watch our boys.
The puck dropped at 12:37 and the fans of both teams were on the edge of their seats as both teams went back and forth for about the first 5 minutes of the opening period.
There was some rust as Justin M. was tested a couple of times but came up big to help out his defence. On one of these occasions...Justin came out to challenge a Newcastle player who managed to get by our defence for a breakaway. The Star player snapped a shot on Justin's glove side to no avail....Justin made the save look easy as the crowd breathed a sigh of relief.
After about the 5 minute mark of the 1st period...our Muskies took control of the game and as time moved on, their play continually improved.
With 9:31 left to play in the 1st....Landin M. passed the puck to Ian K. who quickly passed it over to Max W. for a nice empty net tap in!!!! 1-0 Muskies
The Newcastle goalie made save after save in the 1st period and although the play was in our teams favour...the game was still tight on the scoreboard and it was a little tense watching.
The 1st period ended 1-0 with Max's goal being the only one on the board.
The 2nd period started and the Lindsay dominance continued but again they could not seem to solve the Stars netminder
With 13:07 to play in the 2nd...Jack E. pinched down low and took the puck to the right of the goalie and passed it back to Owen D. who was covering on defence. Owen D. fired the puck on net and hit a Newcastle players stick that deflected into the net. 2-0 Lindsay!!!!!
Im getting on with age and I will honestly admit that my memory is not the greatest
I am not sure if this goal rattled the Stars entire team or if it woke ours up.
From this point forward our Muskies controlled the game with ease and they passed the puck like they had played together for months instead of weeks.
It has been a long time since I have seen passing to this degree and precision..tape to tape passes with multiple empty net tap-ins.
There were no selfish players in this game as every player had their head up and fed the puck to an open man for the good of the team.
Back to my memory....the goals seemed to be one after another and the 2nd period felt like an eternity.
At the end of 2 periods it was 8-0 Lindsay!
Coach Jon took the team into the room between periods and made some adjustments with some defence moving to the forward positions and some of the forwards moving back to defence.
Did these changes slow down our Muskies offence? Did it cause any errors on defence or forward due to the alterations? Read on
The 3rd period felt like a blur...every time I looked up our boys were raising their arms and heading back to centre to take a face-off after a goal.
Justin M. was getting lonely in his end and the rare opportunities that came his way were shut down by the solid defence....and any shot that did manage to make it to him were easily steered aside.
Our Muskies managed to net another 9 goals in the 3rd....again...i will admit that I cannot recall each goal to provide a play by play for anyone that missed the game..for that I apologize. It was like a constant swarm of bees that are relentless in attacking their prey.
Being a part of the practices this season, I did note that the team utilized what they had learned in this game. They would attack on coach Jon's direction and they would break out of their own zone with great passes while skating with their heads up and looking for the open man.
While in the attacking zone there would be two men on the puck with the 3rd in the slot awaiting a pass and the defence were ready to back anything up.
I would like to thank the kids for an entertaining game!!!...Again, it is refreshing to see a team that plays like a team and that listens and puts into practice what they have learned.
These are the signs of a good team...good players...and a good coaching staff
It is a long season but it has started off very well!!!!!!
I hope everyone had a great weekend and look forward to the next game Tuesday Oct 9 vs Brock