LL2 Kinucks Earn Last-Second Tie in Kincardine Barnburner, News, PeeWee LL 2, 2014-2015 (Kincardine Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2014-2015 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Nov 29, 2014 | Heatherb | 1707 views
LL2 Kinucks Earn Last-Second Tie in Kincardine Barnburner
There are occasions in sport – in life, really – where one can look back and remember where they were, who they were with, what they were doing at the time. Moments of great emotion, frozen in time, that enter our collective memory and establish themselves as events of real importance, worthy of recall. Paul Henderson’s goal in 1972; women’s hockey gold in Salt Lake City in 2002; Donovan Bailey as the fastest man in the world in 1996; that time you scored four in the championship game of a men’s league tournament. Memories that are cherished, that are shared, and that you enjoy sharing with others.

The Davidson Centre on Wednesday night bore witness to one of these moments – a heart-pounding, nail-biting, agonizing battle with “the other Kincardine team” that supplied an ending so dramatic, so wildly unlikely, that few would truly believe it if told the story afterward.
 
It began as a distant appointment on the hockey schedule, just another game against just another team. As the season progressed, however, both Kincardine clubs began enjoying truly spectacular success – the Centennial Windows & Doors LL2 Kinucks with a sterling 7-0 unbeaten record, the LL1 Kinucks ever so slightly behind at 6-1. As game day drew closer, it became clear that this would be no ordinary hockey game – this was to be something special, a clash of Local League titans, both attempting not only to improve an already-impressive record, but also to settle rival claims to the title of Kincardine’s best PeeWee LL team.

With both teams fighting through a case of nerves that never fully went away, LL1 took the play to our Kinucks early, with heavy zone pressure and a sublime passing game that always kept the puck tantalizingly out of the reach of our defenders. When the shots finally came, goaltender Aiden McKay calmly steered each aside; rare rebounds were chipped clear of danger. Only a ripper of a wrister from LL1’s Nathan Andrews could solve the defensive wall, staking the home Kinucks to a one-goal lead over the road Kinucks after one.
 
From that point on, it was a chess match – move and countermove, timely faceoff wins, unlucky bounces, board battles won and lost. Close calls at both ends came to naught, both goaltenders providing evidence that they wanted the “W” more than anyone else in the building. And so it went, minute after minute, shift after shift, time inexorably draining away, while LL1 continued to defend the sliver-thin margin. For LL2 Kinucks fans, optimism turned to anxiety, anxiety to despair, and as the final minute was announced and McKay was pulled for an extra attacker, despair gave way to a frenzy of wild desperation. A busted play at the blue line… Boettinger grabs the loose puck and heads up ice… Fitzy jumps up into the rush and it’s a two-on-one… “Shoot! SHOOT!!!” from the rising crowd… and Boettinger fires true. The twine bulges, two seconds remaining on the clock, and pandemonium ensues. Incredibly, improbably, the LL2 Kinucks had battled back for a last-second 1-1 tie with their crosstown rivals.

Parents milled about in the lobby afterward, adrenaline still evident in their voices, waiting for their players to emerge. Already talking about the plays, the players, the unreal quality of it all – the first few minutes of life for a story that will be told for years, by the fans who were there, by fans who wish they had been, and by the players themselves – today, next week, twenty years from now over a few pops at Gilley’s.

The next game for the Centennial Windows & Doors LL2 Kinucks will be against the Saugeen Shores Storm at the Tiverton Arena on Saturday, November 29 at 2:00 pm.
 
Final Score: Kincardine LL2 1, Kincardine LL1 1
Scoring: Boettinger 5 (Pierson)

Written by Travis Fitzgerald
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