Sarnia Gets through the Christmas Break., News, Minor Peewee, 2012-2013, B/BB (Sarnia Hockey)

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This Team is part of the 2012-2013 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Jan 05, 2013 | tschaefer | 864 views
Sarnia Gets through the Christmas Break.
Christmas and March Break can always be a hard time for the young players to keep the focus. But our Sting players played well enough to stay on the undefeated side with a little scare to boot. The Sting played 3 games against the Bandits, Aeros and Warriors with a 2-0-1 record.

Against the Bandits, on December 21, Sarnia was shy a few players and Cam Stevens was between the pipes. A challenge was given to learn to not just drive to the net, but to control the play, move the puck, and play positionally well. The players responded and played some of the best puck control that I have seen yet. Our play resulted in a 3-0 score after the first period came to an end. Unfortunately, the players relaxed a little, put ourselves in some penalty trouble and just kept them at bay for a 5-3 win. Goal scorers were Kaleb with 2, Collin, Ian, and Spencer all with 1 each.
On the lighter side, December 28 found the Sting against a formidable foe, the Senior Sting, (the parents). The Senior Sting were not organized in the opening period and the Junior Sting took advantage and were ahead by 2 goals. But as the Senior Sting slowly became more organized in their play, the momentum started to shift. Beam-me-up Scotty (Bailey) found his place in front of the opposing goalie and had many golden opportunities until one of the Junior players took liberties and relentlessly took Scotty out of the game. (Hope you recover soon). David (The Golden Goose) Goosens and Rob, the Z-man, Zimmer were the protectors of the crease, never allowing anyone to crash the net and protecting the goalies. Dave often found his counterpart, Grant, The Energizer - Gossens with stretch passes who put on the turbos and flew down the ice without breaking a sweat and wearing the defense more and more each time. The Z-man took his role a bit too far and laid out the Honey Badger and now is under a 3 game suspension or until Tyler decides to forgive him, which ever comes first. :) Then we get to Wendy, the Wonder Woman, Ross who never fell once and was the play-maker extraordinaire, showing her dexterity in her expert passing skills. Wendy is still waiting for Cheryl to compensate her for ditching her and making her the lone female on the ice. Then we get to Stu, The Masher, Baillie, the one-man-wrecking crew. If it wasn't for our enforcer instilling a little fear, or at least making the Junior Sting look over their shoulder we may never have won the game. Dwayne showed off some stick handling skills and scoring finesse while Larry, alias Berti, Trigatti was the crowd favourite once again with his fear-imposing slapshot, when he actually had the time time to unload it. But we must add that Larry did disappoint as he never did sing that day for his endearing fans, well a least the awe-inspired kids. Final score 9-7, even though the Junior Sting still think they won because of last-goal-win house rules. (Parents won in regulation, sorry gang!) Thanks to the parents for making it a fun afternoon.
Christmas bustle ended, the New Year celebrations came and went and January 3 saw the Sting back in action against the Oakridge Aeros. The Aeros were pumped and ready for us and I don't think the same can be said for the Sting. It had been 13 days since our last game and we lost some of our momentum. In the first period, neither team had any fire to them but Cole Goosens made a nice move to create a little space to take a nice shot to open up the scoring. Little action happened in the second except for the subtle shift in momentum where Oakridge created some turnovers. This resulted in Oakridge coming out in the third period and scored 3 straight goals to put a little scare in the Sarnia Sting and the parents. The Sting were goal-oriented and allowing odd-man rushes the other way. In the first two periods we mustered a total of 12 shots. In the third period we came alive and peppered 29 shots at the Oakridge goalie. But eventually Greg Ross put a slapshot past the netminder with 8:02 left in the third. The pressure mounted, the goalie was pulled, and finally with 46 seconds left in the game, Matt Waun stepped into the play put the puck upstairs to tie the game at 3-3 which is where it ended giving us our first tie of the year. Players of the games were Greg Ross and Andrew Czyczurko.
With another practice in hand, including some target shooting, we faced the Stratford Warriors who have beat every team except for us. After a good practice, it started looking like we were getting some of our legs back and with a wake up call against Oakridge, our team put their game back together, moving the puck around really well and generating some exciting hockey to watch. It is often emphasized that it isn't always the score that reflects how well we played but how well we execute our offense and defense. Today, we did the latter. Tyler opened the scoring with a nifty little back and forth move and going up stairs. Andrew scored in the second period with a feathered pass from his centre, Cole Goosens. Andrew made no mistake in bulging the net. Spencer Baillie had game in him today, playing a very physical checking game, feeding his line mates assisting on Brock Barber's goal right after the faceoff, and scoring 3 goals of his own, two for our team and one for them, oops! Stevie and Spencer couldn't do anything but smile and move on. Biggest splits I have seen Stevie do all year trying to get a piece of Spencer's redirection. Josh D'Angela got in on the action setting up Spencer's second goal. In the third period, Stratford tried to make it a game by skating more and applying more pressure but our D-men were ready for the task, getting rid of rebounds, playing physical, clearing the puck or moving the puck more responsibly and therefore limited their goals to only 2 goals in the third. It was good to have Damon back after taking a Christmas sabatical and getting the D-pairings back together. Kaleb continued the scoring taking a nice feed from Spencer and showing off his scoring touch. Andrew scored a TSN highlight goal but also needs to thank his line mates, Cole and Kaleb as they showed their prowess, moving the puck well controlling the play and Andrew finally slipping the puck past the Oakridge goalie. Stevie backstopped the Sting having a solid game saving 24 of 27 shots. There were many considerations for the game, but Spencer and Kaleb were named as players of the game.
Next game: January 11, Sarnia Sting vs Port Huron @ Sarnia Arena - 7:00 p.m.