Written by Lori Spoltore,
Wow, now that was a hockey game! The Atom AE Huskies managed to battle for a tie 1-1 versus a very talented team from Arthur in their 6 point series for the league championship final. It was, without a doubt, one of the best games the Huskies have EVER played in a do or die fight. These boys truly proved to their fans that they are NOT ready to throw in the towel just yet. Arthur now leads the series with two wins from earlier in the week, and a point for the tie, 5-1.
The Huskies can thank the dedicated work of their defensive team as they worked tirelessly to rid the puck of the New Hamburg zone. Tyler Jackman was hot in the crease and demonstrated true confidence with excellent glove saves and challenging decision making to cover the puck. Great praise and support came from his teammate Max Evans. The D stepped up to the puck and played an extremely aggressive game cutting off the typical cherry picker passes that Arthur love to use in their strategy. Luke Timmons and Joey Entz were instrumental in breaking up various plays, never backing down from a challenge, particularly on the boards. Ryan Hillar, Scott Carey, and Adam Barr were outstanding at the blue line, and skated their legs off to get back to cover. Teammate Logan Kleine is currently away so the boys had to adjust to different partners and situations. As the Huskies played shorthanded for much of the third period due to penalties, the defense and penalty killing team did a great job icing the puck to kill the time. Excellent hustle by Zachary Hart. Another strategy that worked for the Huskies was the excellent passing by using the boards, keeping the puck out of the middle of the ice. Brilliant job to the D, and they should be so proud of their efforts. Thankfully, another bonus was that Arthur was missing star player Ryan Goetz (2) who is fast and mighty, often contributing to the Arthur offense.
Special congratulations to Sam Herrle as he knocked in the Huskies' lone goal with four minutes left on the clock in the third period, an assist to Hillar, and strong forward play by Charlie Slessor. The fans went nuts and everyone from NH hockey felt the same feelings of elation that were felt earlier in the year at Silver Stick, believing the boys could do it. Arthur was not ready to concede and came back tough. The Huskies got into some questionable penalty trouble and with two minutes on the clock, Bryan Richardson (12) stole one back with a terrific raised shot that snuck into a corner. The game was tied. Jake Schweitzer, Noah Walmsley and Corson Myers hustled the entire game and created many scoring opportunities. Hart, Jack Weiler, and Herrle were terrific backchecking and getting back to put extra pressure on the Arthur skaters. Brandon Ropp and Aidan Voisin continue to be offensive threats with one time shots from the sides that are going to land in the net sooner or later. The Arthur goalie is very strong, and can catch just about anything in the air which kept Roppy and Voisin off the scoreboard for now. Slessor almost snuck one in carrying the puck right to the net, but goalie McCabe was able to stop it.
In overtime action Arthur knocked one out of the air into the net but thankfully the officials made a decent call of highsticking and the goal was disallowed. The Huskies also had to kill another penalty but were able to do it. The game ended in a tie and the teams shared a point in the series.
Congratulations on a fine TEAM effort to all of the Huskies. Good luck in game four on Sunday at 4:30 at WRC. Go Huskies!