On January 16th our boys travelled to Woodville
to take on the mighty Hurricanes.
Following a tough exhibition loss on Saturday at the home of the Peterborough Petes, the boys were put through an intense workout session on Sunday with Petes GM Mike Oke running OHL caliber drills to get the boys back on track.
The tactic paid dividends for the team as they rebounded from a tired effort Saturday to pull off a big 4-0 victory.
Howell returned to the ice after missing the previous 3 games and opened the scoring with a beautiful top shelf marker midway through the first. 2 minutes later Mitchell put the Wild up by two banging in a rebound off a hard Dewsbury shot that handcuffed the Woodville goaltender.
In the second period, Woodville put pressure on to try to get back into the game but could not penetrate the tough Wild defense led by Wilson and Haecker.
Underwood made several impressive saves including a breakaway shot to preserve the Wild lead at 2 going into the 3rd period.
The Wild finally put the game away midway through the 3rd when Mitchell banged in his second of the game off a rebound in front of the Wild net. Howell would later add another for his 2nd of the game to seal the 4-0 victory.
Throughout the game the boys showed some of their best passing of the season with some exceptional passing by Bugg and Dewsbury. Oke and Giguere also had some great rushes creating several great scoring chances.
Yerema, Benge and Dowswell did excellent work keeping the puck in the Woodville zone while Parry and Walkden had some close scoring chances down low and provided some nice back checking.
Underwood walked away with the impressive shutout.
The win marked the 3rd straight regular season victory for the Wild and moved the boys within 1 point of first place in the standings.
Our next game will be a big test for the boys as they take on the tough Lindsay Teal team in Lindsay on Sunday morning.