Nov 18, 2018 | Greg English | 720 views
Atom LL#1 Stuns New Hamburg 1
Wildcats shock 4th seed Huskies with short bench
The LL#1 Wildcats would travel to Wilmot once again as they work their way up the league standings. Currently in 5th the cats would face a 4th place Huskies team who just upset Woolwich 3 the day before.
An already tough matchup would become more daunting with some late scratches to the LL#1 lineup leaving them with 7 skaters and a goalie against a full team of 15 skaters and a goalie. The referees and the Huskies coaching staff chuckled about the predicament, but they were in for a surprise. The Cats have been in this predicament before (1st game of the season) and despite the lopsided player count, the boys were confident they would compete.
The Wildcats held their own through the first period with end to end action. Going back to basics the LL#1 team worked the puck up the boards to get out of their end, and our offence got some shots on a New Hamburg goalie who showed a great glove hand with 2 big saves early. Not to be outdone, Kelan English would turn away a couple of breakaways and some scrambles in front before the Huskies would sneak one past with less than 2 minutes left in the first period.
New Hamburg would get a 2nd early in the second period, and the mood in the arena changed as everyone expected that things were about to get out of control...but Wilmot was not familiar with this fierce team. Nicholas Shantz-Schlegel was overheard on the bench saying "We are a small but mighty team", and each and every Wildcat would step up and show that he was right.
Jonah Schmidt and Evan Regar would combine on 2 in the 2nd to even the score, and we would trade goals again before the period would end knotted at 3 goals a piece. Woolwich would take the lead in early in the 3rd and hold it till the 8 minute mark before the Huskies would tie it up.
Just when you thought the ice would tilt in New Hamburg's favour, we would see amazing defensive plays by Carson Zinger, Austin Thompson, and Bryden Schaefer who was showcasing his ironman two-way play on forward and defence. Caleb Antonello would dazzle with some stick handling, and start to move the puck forward out of our zone with some nice chips off the boards. Austin almost won the game for us with some awesome shots from the point that just missed the Huskies net, and Jonah Schmidt stunned the arena with two more breakaway chances after his 4 goal tally! Kelan would silence the Wilmot crowd with a key breakaway save with 14 seconds left, and the Cats would hang on to pull out an amazing 4-4 tie on the road with a very short bench.
GREAT JOB WILDCATS LL#1!!
Scoring:
Goals:
Jonah Schmidt (4)
Assists:
Evan Reger (2)
Austin Thompson
Golden Jersey:
Austin Thompson has been playing at an elite level for many weeks now. Clearing the puck from our end and sacrificing everything to get the puck out of the danger zone. He has had numerous chances just barely miss from the blue line in the offensive zone, and we know that one of his powerful shots are going to score any game now. Austin has really stepped up an knows the importance of getting the puck out of our end, and sees how he generates offence by getting the puck past the opposing teams defence so our forwards can pick it up and run with it. Excellent work Austin - Keep it up!!