Kincardine Hair Connection Atom LL1 played against Durham on Saturday, 16Jan2010. Durham was the team’s first outing of the year with a 1-9 loss. The question on the coaching staffs’ minds was, “Have we improved and by how much?”
The first period started off as planned, with Payton (#8), Colton (#14) and Darian (#3) pinning Durham in their end for most of their shift. Durham came back the next shift and Martin (#2) helped the defense out by coming back hard and taking away a two-on-one opportunity. Midway through the period, Tyler (#1) came up with a big save in tight to keep the game tied at zero. Cameron (#6) did a good job of aggressively taking away space in the slot getting his stick in the shooting lane and taking away a quality opportunity with Michael (#13) coming back to help close the gap. The first period ended tied at zero.
The second period continued where the first left off, with both teams trading chances. Isaiah (#5) skated the puck deep into the Durham end with Ryan (#16) and Martin (#2) heading to the front of the net, but Isaiah couldn’t get it through to them. A turnover down the ice resulted in a one-on-one with Matt forcing the Durham forward to take the long shot that Tyler (#1) handled. Brendan (#10) continued the good defensive play with good position in front of the net to take away a shot from the slot. Ariel (#11) was able to clear the puck off the boards and out of harms way. Colton (#14) got a break skating hard down the ice before taking a hard shot from a bad angle and sliding into the boards. Matt (#12) took the puck coast to coast, finishing with a nice deke that was stopped by a sprawling Durham goalie. The second period also ended scoreless.
The third period started on the right note with Ryan (#16) putting pressure on the Durham defense along the boards causing a turnover that Isaiah (#5) picked up, taking it into the middle. His shot was blocked but Martin (#2) got the rebound only to miss wide. The puck went the other way deep into Kincardine’s end and a collision resulted in a Durham opportunity low on the glove side that Tyler (#1) got a piece of but could not stop resulting in a Durham goal. Later, on a clearance from Kincardine’s end, Colton (#14) out-raced the defense to get a shot on net with Payton (#8) and Darian (#3) converging on the net but there was no rebound. Durham then scored their second goal on a one-on-one with a great shot off the post. They then continued to press with Tyler (#1) making a stop on a high shot from the slot. A third Durham goal was scored from the side of the net with the puck deflecting off Tyler’s skate. Kincardine then put pressure deep in Durham’s end with Colton (#14) cutting off the boards and getting the puck to Payton (#8) in the corner who then just missed getting the pass to Darian (#3) in the slot. The resulting turnover had Durham take the puck the other way for their fourth goal in less than six minutes. Kincardine ended the game on a high note when Brendan (#10) chipped the puck off the boards to Darian (#3) who made a nice outside-in move around the defense, finishing off with a shot high to the glove side for the goal. The final score was 1-4 for Durham in a game that was much closer than the score indicated. Kincardine LL1 has certainly improved since the beginning of the year!