The Wild continued their hot steak Friday night with a match
against the Kawartha Coyotes.
Coming into the game the Wild had learned that their star goalie was suffering from Strep throat and would be a game time decision as to whether or not he could play.
But Half-Price refused to sit on the sidelines and decided to battle it out.
This gave the Wild some extra motivation as they were determined to shut down the Coyotes offense and allow Half-Price to have an easy night.
The 1st period proved to be much more intense than the coaches would have liked as the Coyotes came at us hard in the early going and got some really close chances to score. But Half-Price made some big saves to keep the Coyotes off the scoreboard. He may have looked terrible in the dressing room but it did not show on the ice.
Then late in the period the Wild would get on the board. After having several chances blocked by the Coyotes net-minder Slammer would finally find a way to get one into the back of the net to give the Wild a 1-0 lead going into the 2nd.
The Wild dominated the 2nd period as we took it to them hard and finally got rewarded late in the period.
After a nice stop by Half-Price, Pulley picked up the loose puck and turned on the jets carrying the puck in behind her own net and then went end to end finishing the play off with a laser past the blocker to give the Wild a 2-0 lead. The play looked like a young Bobby Orr carrying the puck into the Coyotes end finishing off with Shea Weber like blast from inside the hashmarks. An absolute beauty!
Just 2 minutes later the Wild would strike again. This time it was Slammer going hard to the net to jam in his 2nd of the night as the Wild took a 3-0 lead heading into the 3rd.
The Coyotes came out hard in the first minute to try to mount the comeback but Half-Price still had some fight left in him as he made a couple beauty saves while our defense did a great job letting him see the puck and clearing out rebounds.
Then the Wild would counterattack and put the game out of reach, as Slammer would get the Hat-trick goal with another relentless attack.
This would knock the wind out of the sails for the Coyotes as the Wild continued to attack. If not for some big saves at the other end, the Wild really could have racked up the score.
The Wild would seal the deal with just over 4 minutes left as Vonzi would get loose and fire one over the glove of the Coyotes net-minder to give the Wild the commanding 5-0 lead.
The final few minutes were intense as the Coyotes tried desparately to get a goal, but our Wild were just too strong as they held off the Coyotes attack preventing them from getting another shot.
The game would end in a 5-0 Wild victory as Half-Price would get his 2nd shut-out of the season.
A great game played by everyone. A true team effort. Each and every player really stepped it up a notch in the both the offensive and defensive zone.
Slammer and Lynchey were beasts all night long down the middle as they created several nice scoring chances and came back hard on the back check to help the defense.
Our defense of Kirky, Pulley, Crusty and Reesor were on complete lock-down mode as they shut down the Coyotes attack and moved the puck extremely well out of our end.
Wild Bill came very close to getting his 1st goal on several hard plays to the net and was relentless on the attack. Every time he went into the corners, the Coyotes defenders went down like a set of bowling pins as he barreled through and ended up with the puck.
Vonzi was an offensive force all game long driving to the net and getting a lot of nice shots. I’m sure the Coyotes goalie had seen enough of him by the end of night.
Hudsy and the Termi-Nater showed a lot of grit and hussle as they created fits all night long for the Coyotes defense. Both players battled hard along the boards and in the corners and created some nice chances with their hard drive to the net.
Payner was feisty all game at both ends of the rink, winning battles at the blue line and getting some nice chances down low.
Powsey, still recovering from his Disney cruise and was unable to make it for the game.
Half-Price made the big saves when needed and despite being under the weather was able to keep focused for the full game right to the final buzzer. As per one of our loyal fans the game will go down in infamy as the “Strep Shut-Out”!
Great work everyone. A great prelude to what should be an exciting finish to the season with playoffs and the Lefroy tournament just around the corner.
The Wild will have their final tune-up Thursday night against the dreaded Durham Crusaders. Last time we met was back early in the season as they blew us away 6-1. But this time they are in our barn against a vastly improved Wild squad that is on the prowl.
Look out Durham, the Wild are hungry!!