Kincardine Atom LL2 hosted Teeswater on 19Mar2009. Kincardine had been playing very well lately and were looking forward to improving their playoff record.
The first period saw furious action with both teams getting good scoring chances, mostly on odd man rushes. Kincardine's goalie, Alex (#1) was equal to the task making many good saves, but so was the Teeswater goalie. With just over a minute left in the first period, Teeswater broke the scoreless deadlock to go up 1-0.
Kincardine continued to press for a goal in the second period. Hogan (#11) had two breakaways but was robbed by a hot Teeswater goalie. Two defensive lapses lead to another 2 Teeswater goals, with the score 3-0 going into the third period.
Kincardine finally beat the Teeswater goalie with just over five minutes remaining in the game. Hogan (#11) rushed the puck up the ice, cut across the ice and shot at the net from the high slot. The goalie made the stop, but Mackenzie (#30) was driving hard to the net and took a swipe at the rebound. In the scrum, Hogan found the puck and took another shot, again stopped by the Teeswater goalie with the rebound coming to Michael (#6) who had also charged to the net. Michael shovelled the puck through the Teeswater goalies legs. Kincardine continued to the press for another goal but the Teeswater goalie stood on his head, stopping at least another three breakaways. Another defensive lapse with about a minute to go cost Kincardine another goal. The final score was 1-4 for Teeswater.
The score was not an accurate reflection of the play as Kincardine had many scoring chances but could not beat the Teeswater goalie. Kincardine's terrific trio on defence, Chris (#15), Alex (#8) and Brendan (#10) did well in defensive zone coverage, protecting the slot area and clearing the puck up the boards and out of harms way. Chris in particular did a great job of making pinpoint passes up to Kincardine's forwards. Kincardine's wings, Rachit (#2), Michael (#6), Ryan (#16) and Mackenzie (#30) also did well in covering their points defensively, chipping pucks out of the defensive zone and aggressively pursued the puck in the attacking zone. Kincardine's centres, Virat (#4) and Hogan (#11) did a great job in coming back to support the defense, preventing many breakaways. They tenaciously forechecked Teeswater in the offensive zone, causing many turnovers.