The Brock Wild picked up their first win of the season
Wednesday night against the Mariposa Lightning.
The Wild have shown improvement in recent games after a
tough start to the season and came through with a full team effort enroute to a
huge 3-2 victory!
The first period was tight as both teams battled back and forth with both teams getting some quality scoring chances but both goalies were sharp as the score remained tied at zero after the 1st.
In the 2nd period, the intensity increased as both sides were determined to break the game open. The Wild would strike 1st early in the period. Powsy got a hard shot off that trickled through the goalies pads where Vonzi was there to bang it home to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later the Lightning would strike. After several big time saves by Watsy, the Lightning found a way to get one by him on a rebound as they would tie it up at 1 a peace.
About 1 minute later the Lightning would strike again. This time a hard low wrister would find its way just inside the post to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
The Lightning came at us hard for the remainder of the 2nd but Watsy was on a mission and made several big time saves to keep the score at 2-1 as we headed into the 3rd period.
The Wild would regroup for the 3rd and came out flying. 2 minutes into the period, Kirky would get off a hard shot that would handcuff the Lightning goalie. As he searched for the rebound, Half Price crashed the net hard and jammed it through the pads for his 1st goal of the season to tie the game at 2.
The Wild would keep coming and would be rewarded again late in the period. Half Price would pick up the loose puck in our own end and fire a hard pass out of the zone to Wild Bill who would make a nice move and pass it over to Vonzi for a breakaway. Vonzi made no mistake and buried it into the corner of the net as the Wild would take a 3-2 lead!
The Lightning would come at us hard in the final minute forcing us to take a penalty with just 37 seconds left on the clock but the Wild defense held on strong and would not let the Lightning get the equalizer as we pulled off our 1st win of the season.
Watsy was on fire in goal all night making several key saves including a couple highlight reel (Carey Price like) glove saves.
Kirky and Vonzi played excellent 2-way hockey all night at the center position creating a lot of offensive chances and doing a great job on the back check. Vonzi would pick up 2 goals on the night while Kirky would pick up an assist.
Wild Bill and Powsy continue to get ever so close to getting their 1st goals this season as they both had some glorious chances that just wouldn’t go in for them but both would get on the game-sheet each with an assist.
Mason played a very strong game on the wing chipping the puck past the defenders to get some nice scoring chances.
Half Price looked a little like Gallagher out there on the ice, crashing the net and battling hard in the corners and was rewarded with a 2 point night.
Brennan moved up from defense to the wing and did a great job getting the puck out of our end digging the puck out of the corners in the offensive zone.
James battled hard all game and did a good job on the back check.
Our defense played very strong. All three pairings, Lyncher with Mitchell, Pulley and Payner and Termi-Nater with Reesor were rock solid all night long covering up in front and clearing rebounds. All 6 did a great job clearing the puck out of our end and showed a lot of hussle getting back to limit the Lightning attack.
Leon was unable to attend the game but will be back for all 3 games of this weekend’s tournament in Innisfil. He continues to show a lot of improvement with every game and we are happy to get him back into the line-up.
Overall a great team effort.
Let’s hope we can carry the momentum into the weekend as we go for a championship at the Lefroy Ice Breaker Challenge.
1st game is 11:15 Friday against the Lefroy Icebreakers. Half Price will get the start in net.
Let’s keep up the good work Wild!