On Sunday January 22 the boys travelled to Lindsay for an
early morning tilt against our nemesis the Lindsay Teal.
Unfortunately, despite a strong effort the boys came up
short in a tough 5-4 loss ending their win streak at 3 games.
The Wild started out very sluggish allowing the Lindsay Teal to jump to a 4-0 lead. It was after the 4th goal that the alarm went off and our boys started to play like we know they can.
Wilson made a great end to end rush late in the period to finally get the boys on the board and give the Wild the spark they needed to get the game back on track heading into the second.
The second period was very evenly matched with several chances at both ends. 3 minutes in, the Lindsay Teal padded their lead to 5-1 on a bullet shot to the top right corner of the net that Mitchell had no chance on.
After that Mitchell put up a wall making several spectacular saves including a couple breakaways to give our boys a chance to get back in the game. He would not give up another goal for the rest of the game despite facing several high quality shots.
Seeing their goalie making save after save the Wild responded late in the period with a goal by Howell to narrow the gap to 5-2 heading in to the 3rd.
In the 3rd period our boys played some of the best hockey we have seen all year as they mounted an improbable comeback.
Bugg, Benge, Parry and Dewsbury provided some strong forechecking that produced several quality scoring chances while Dowswell, Haecker, Yerema and Underwood made some great defensive plays to keep the game within reach. Wilson, Oke, Giguere and Howell made some great rushes while Mitchell was fantastic in goal.
Midway through the period Bugg and Oke made an amazing give and go play setting up Oke on a breakaway. Despite being stopped on the initial shot, Oke stayed on the puck and took it behind the net and tried to stick it on a wraparound attempt and was stopped yet again but with second and third effort was able to finally jam the puck into the Lindsay net to close the lead to just 2.
A few minutes later Howell would add his second of the game and the boys were right back in it with a chance to tie late in the 3rd.
Despite several quality scoring chances the boys would come up short ending the game with a 5-4 loss.
Based on our effort in the second half of the game I have no doubt we will be able to beat these guys the next time we meet.
Next on the schedule is Tuesday night against the Sturgeon Lake Thunder.