The New Hamburg Oak Grove Cheese Minor Atom A Huskies secured their first league victory September 22nd with a comeback over the Hespeler Shamrocks.
The Huskies had faced the Shamrocks in exhibition play
September 13th and pulled a 3-1 final.
Luck of the Irish kept the Shamrocks in the game for the
first two periods with numerous failed attempts to crack the strong Huskies
defence of Matt Eddy, Aaron Bell, Owen Lowry, Evan Green and Austin Lee-Barker.
A scoreless game at the end of the second period, however, did not show the
effort and control the Huskies' offence and defence maintained. Hespeler was
kept in the game by their wall-like goalie and any shots between the Huskie
pipes were covered or shoved away by Jordan Hopkins. Tyler Clements (goalie)
gave mental high fives with each save. The start of the third period saw the
Shamrocks get a lucky bounce for 1 and a hard shot for another to lead 2-0.
The Huskies ran as a pack and didn't stop
charging the net with great offensive plays from Jack Wheeler, Joey Gibson and
Cody Cowell. Cody Klassen and Sam Thorne's stickhandling and footwork dizzied
the Shamrocks. Holden Ehgoetz worked the offensive corners well, setting up
opportunities in the Shamrock's zone. The tide turned for the Huskies when Kyle
Barr entered the Shamrock's zone with a shot inside of the blueline making it
2-1. The Huskies were on the board and could smell the fear. Barr carried the
puck a second time with a shot on net that deflected to Mitchell Hunter who
slammed it home to make it 2-2 with under three minutes of play remaining. Both
teams poured it as the clock ticked down. Cowell gained possession of the puck
in Huskie territory and dialed up the steam with a final rush at the Shamrocks. His shot rebounded
onto the stick of Thorne who, without hesitation, did a perfect tape to tape
pass to Hunter who shot and scored with 2.7 seconds remaining on the clock.
Huskies 3, Shamrocks 2.