Written by Barry Culmer
Now the games matter, and on 16 January the Legion PeeWee Rep boys opened up their playoffs against the Sailors in Goderich in a best of five. Both teams started tentatively in the first period although with chances at both ends of the ice. Late in the period Kincardine started to play more creatively and got the reward four seconds from the horn when Garret McFadden fired one in from Shane Vollmer. Seconds into the next period Ethan Skinner, back after injury, doubled the lead in a scramble in front of the net following a Garret McFadden shot. Halfway through the period McFadden scored the goal of the game unassisted on a short-handed rush to make it 3 – 0. Excellent work by the Goderich goalie kept the strongly attacking Kinucks at bay before the boys found themselves playing out the rest of the period three on five after a couple of late penalties.
With just under a minute of a penalty still to be killed at the start of the third, Joey Doyle made a big save straight after the face off. A minute in Shane Vollmer, coming out of the box, got behind the Sailors’ defence to shoot the fourth on the breakaway. Ethan Skinner from Scott McFarlan, and Garret McFadden with his hat trick from Brett Burrows and Ethan Long, had Kincardine cruising at 6 – 0 with ten minutes of the game remaining. But Kincardine got too complacent, turning over the puck and allowing Goderich too many two on one opportunities. The Sailors showed that they will make a fight of the series if given the chance with three unanswered goals, the last just seconds from the end, to make the final score 6 – 3 to the Kinucks. Game 2 of the series goes Tuesday the 19th in Kincardine at 7 pm.