Nov 04, 2011 | landrews | 899 views
Kinucks Play Comeback Kids Again!
On Wednesday November 2nd , the Canadian Tire Atom Rep team played host to Minto Maddogs. With Kaleb missing in action and Everett sidelined with a slight ankle sprain, the Kinucks readied themselves for a battle.
Minto is not in our regular loop and the coaches decided on an exhibition game to measure up the teams. We started William in net and tried for a quick start. Alyssa, Zach, and Travis started us off and put on some good pressure and our first chance, denied. Carson let go with a nice slapper, turn aside and Ryan let fly with a hard, high wrist shot, turned away by the Minto goalie. Minto then took the puck, raced up the wing and fired it behind the net. The pass out front right on the opposition stick resulted in a fine goal. Minto 1-0 at the 7:20 mark. This woke up Minto mad dogs and 18 seconds later a high wrist shot found the twine behind William, 2-0. We then started skating and Travis had a nice rush up the wing and passed to Kendon out front, just wide. This got our defence flying and Mattie sent Brennan out of the zone, a little deke here and there, Dipsy doodle move followed by a hard wrist shot ,but stopped. Carson, Brody, Mattie and Brennan cleared the zone with numerous passes and dekes. This got the Bomber skating and Zach went end to end only to be turned away again. Liam, Kendon and Ryan worked a nice give and go with fine passes but were unable to turn on the red light. Minto finished the period of strong with #15 deking out everyone on the ice and tickled the twine with 19 seconds left 3-0. That’s the way the period ended. Alyssa started off the second with a face off win and Zach in on a breakaway, stopped, and with the goalie out of the net, Griffin had a chance but sent a backhander over the empty net.(oops) a good start to get up back in the game, but still no goal. After a number of good saves by William, Minto was able to deke out a few more Kinucks and scored once again, 4-0. The crowd was getting quiet and wondering if this Kinucks team had another comeback in them or they were just going through Halloween withdrawals. Carson and Mattie sent out our forwards with a number of good passes on the tape and created some fine chances for Liam, Kendon, and Zach. Brody and Brennan also had some fine rushes as well as some excellent defensive plays to thwart the Mad dogs. Then Zach fed Liam with a laser behind the minto defence and just like that , the light went on and the Comebacks kids started playing, 4-1 at the 6:41 of the 2nd. Minto was shaken and a few seconds later got a tripping penalty, Kinucks on the powerplay. Ryan, Alyssa, and Griffin, buzzed the net, fired the rubber but were unable to cross the line. The next unit came on and created lots of chances but still 4-1. Minto killed the penalty and sent a speeding winger down the side and only the wheels of Brennan were able to stop a breakaway. Then he recovered the puck, sent it to Liam, who fed Kendon. He deked the defender and passed it to a streaking Zach who scored from his knees, 4-2. The kids are warming up. Producing lots of chances. Then Minto turned the tabled and kept us penned in for the last 2 minutes and that is when William stood on his head to stop everything thrown at him. The second period ended 4-2 for Minto. The whispers in the crowd were, can they do it again?,do they have any gas left? Did anyone send some chocolate to the bench for energy ? or lastly maybe the coaches are throwing a candy or 2 at them on the bench? Whatever was happening, we started the 3rd period blasting the puck and when Ryan passed it to Liam, who found a zooming Kendon with a Wayne Gretzky type wrap-around, the Kinucks had now pulled to within 1 at the 4:01 mark. This produced some good hockey on both ends of the ice, with wrist shots and a breakaway by Ryan firing it just wide. William continued his fine play and he sent Brennan on a coast to coast skate, stopped then passed to Liam, stopped again and his own rebound deflected over the net. With just a couple of minutes to go, Brody cleared the zone to Mattie who head manned it to Kendon, he flew around behind the net, drew 2 defenders and made a sweet pass to Alyssa and smashed home the tying goal.4-4. The comeback was complete, but could we hold on or maybe even get that go ahead goal? We tried and thanks to a couple of timely saves by William we ended the game tied 4-4. A big hand to the hard working defence, the forwards for back checking and to William for standing tall after being down 4-0. The next question for the coach is maybe we could start playing before the other team gets 5 goals next time. Good luck Kinucks Written by Jeff Renaud