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Sarnia vs North London
The effect was
dazzling as the sodium vapour lighting inside the Carling Arena
reflected from the new white and yellow RBK brand blocker and
glove set sported by Roan Mackay while he etched the blue ice of
the crease prior to the puck drop of the Sarnia Sting Minor
Peewee M.D. hockey club match versus the North London Nationals.
Tough break as
Scott Ferguson fell just outside the Nationals blue line, which
allowed the breakout pass, Chris Noble to Daniel King. King made
no mistake opening the scoring just one minute-ten seconds into
the first period. The left-hand leather (did I mention it was
brand new?) snagged its first biscuit, 1:58 in, and Mackay held
it for the whistle. King in on the scoring again, this time an
assist on the Ryan Brissette marker following a failed clearing
attempt, at 3:53 of the first. The goal coming from the left
side of the slot, fifteen feet in front of Mackay. Another
scare, still early in the first, as #4 King hit the post!
Turning up ice,
with Nicholas VanBilsen down the left wing wall, following a
pass to clear the zone from Tyler Groulx, to get Sarnia’s first
shot on goal. Bryson Pratt to the sin bin, roughing the call,
Sting on the power play. A bank off the boards picked up by
James Pavey at the red line and fed over to Mitch Hodgins.
Hodgins the right winger, grabbed the puck at the blue line and
shot it in for the Sting’s only good scoring chance during the
man advantage. A pair of offsetting hooking minors and a good
back checking effort by Hodgins to foil the Nat’s final scoring
chance rounded out the balance of play in the period. Sarnia out
played and out shot, 10-3, in the first stanza.
Puck held in at
the right point by Christian Kerrigan, ahead to Dean MacEachern,
the shot and a superb glove save by #30 Kyle Smeltzer started
the second period action. London continued to pour it on, King
over the blue line, stick checked cleanly by Kevin Dann but the
puck was picked up by Chris Noble. The backhander fired over the
right shoulder of Mackay increased the lead, three nil, London
in command.
Groulx off to the
box for two or less, roughing the signal given by the stripped
steward of the game. London guilty of icing, while on the power
play, brought the face off back to the right of Smeltzer. Draw
won by London and they headed down ice to have the pass play
intercepted at the Sting blue line by MacEachern. Dean able to
take the puck deep, ragging it past the icing line, killing time
before London is able to slap it off his stick. The clearing
attempt foiled at the wall by VanBilsen and sent back up to
MacEachern for an excellent short-handed shot on goal. Sarnia
able to escape the two minutes unscathed. Hodgins hard work on
the half boards….and he’s upended; Spencer Ashby drove his
lumber hard to the puck but took the feet out from beneath the
Sting winger at 6:44 of the second period.
Konnor Harris
held the line and threw it to the corner, picked up there by
Eric Cunningham and a slick pass to MacEachern in the slot, and
he flipped it into the back of the cage. Only thirteen seconds
needed for Sarnia to hit pay dirt with the man advantage, Sting
now trailing 3-1. Joshua Villani in to take over the net
minding duties from Smeltzer as he gets the well deserved round
of applause from the London faithful.
Pratt called for
boarding as he bowled over Cunningham and sent him to the wall
in behind the Sting net with just over two to go in the second.
Sarnia’s hopes were dashed as King lit the lamp with the shorty,
43 seconds left to play in the period. Centre ice face off to
start the third, won by London and taken by King to the blueline.
Kerrigan tried for the big body check but missed and King
stepped by him to score again. The fifth nail in the Sting
coffin came fourteen seconds after the puck drop. Sarnia
trailed 5-1 when Dylan Tosland was escorted to the penalty box
with a hooking charge. Cross ice pass from Ferguson led to the
power play goal by VanBilsen, just what the doctor ordered if
Sarnia had any hope of a come back.
If hope does lie somewhere over the rainbow, we should expect a
double batch as many skaters witnessed a twin rainbow near
Kerwood during the eastward drive to the rink. “If happy little
bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can’t I?” sang
Dorothy to Toto. Maybe it wasn’t the movie playing on the DVD
screen in every minivan heading to Carling Arena…but still a
valid question. In a classroom experiment a beam of white
light is passed through a glass triangle, a prism. The speed of
the wave of light as it passes from one transparent medium to
another, in this case the air then the glass prism, changes.
This causes the light to bend. This is called refraction. The
great Dutch physicist Willebrord Snell, I think he was Hans
Christen Anderson’s right winger, derived the relationship
between the different angles of light as it passes through
different mediums. When light bends it follows Snell’s Law…. the
refractive index of the medium the light was leaving multiplied
by the Sine of the angle of incidence must equal the refractive
index of the medium the light is entering multiplied by the Sine
of the refractive angle, which is the angle between the ray of
light and the normal to the medium to medium interface. Simple
eh? Everything that is transparent and has edges that are
not parallel has an index of refraction such as the prism in the
classroom. What about the raindrop? It’s transparent….
light travels through it. It has unparallel walls, hence it has
an index of refraction…it slows the speed of the sunlight
travelling to your eye and bends it into the colours of the
spectrum…the colours you see as the rainbow. V.I.B.G.Y.O.R.;
Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red, or you can
remember as “Victory In Battle Gains You Our Respect”.
That explains why Christian and I were delayed getting to the
arena, as we stopped to get that pot of gold we were sure lay
just behind the silo at the Kerwood Feed and Seed, the rainbow
moved further away from us!
Back to the
Battle…Hope dashed again as the Nat’s come right back and
restore the four goal margin 6-2 on the very next shift.
Offensive face off won by MacEachern, a shot from Curtis
Lindsay, hit a defenceman on the way to the goal, the carom
picked up by Cunningham and hammered home, Sting down by
three.London right back with a two on one, played perfectly by
Harris as he angled the puck carrier to the corner. The pass
across deflected by Kerrigan as he sprawled to get his blade on
the biscuit, pushing it right onto the stick of MacEachern at
the Sting blue line. MacEachern hit Cunningham with the pass
through the centre zone and a good scoring opportunity as Eric
beat the defence for the shot on goal. Sarnia started to
control the play for the first time in the game, as MacEachern
hit Hodgins with a pass to the right wall. Cross-ice pass,
Hodgie to Pavey, set him free for another good scoring chance.
Puck held in Nat’s territory, Hodgins at the icing line with a
pass to Pavey, out front to MacEachern. “Top shelf in the pantry
where Mommy hides the cookies” was right where the shot from
“Big Mac” found nothing but netting and Sarnia was beginning to
make a contest out of this game.
Dann with the
pass out of the zone to Pavey, he’s in across the line. Swerved
to the right side, but the backhand pass attempt failed to
click. Still pressure in London’s end of the ice, play stopped
on the wall by Hodgins. He threw it toward the goal, scramble
and the goalie, Villani, able to cover.
Smart pass by
Groulx to Lindsay at the blue line, Curtis had a step on the
defender and Pratt was forced to haul him down. Two minutes to
think that play over as Sarnia put out the power play unit,
Calvin Hughson and Chris Maitland the rearguards, with Lindsay,
Gruolx and Cunningham up front. Pressure but no goals with the
man-up, the best chance a shot from the face off dot blocked by
Ian Watt, the right defenceman.
Back to even
strength with the play along the boards in the London end and
puck squirted loose to Leeam Ridley at the right hash mark. A
“Guy Lafleur slapper” to the top corner! Not a prayer for
Villani to stop that rocket. The unassisted marker came with two
and a handful to go. Ferguson across to his partner, Dann who
head manned it to Hodgins at the red line. Hodgie darted down
the right wall and tried to squeeze passed the big defenseman
#18 Ian Watt. Watt angled over and delivered a massive body
check that had the Sting faithful holding their breath. No
worries. Hodgins wedged himself tight to the boards, which
allowed the wall to absorb the brunt of the impact (just way you
do it in practice) and was to carry right on to pick the puck
up, now deep in enemy territory. The pass to the slot, Hodgins
to Groulx, and Tyler tickled the twine with a minute twenty-four
left in regulation to tie the score at sixes!
Final rush of the
game, Ridley down the left wing boards and again Watt pasted the
Sting forward to the wall. Almost the same play, as Ridley
positioned himself to let the wall take the impact and he
scooted by with the puck. Good play Leeam and good coaching,
whoever taught you boys that trick is well worth paying
attention to. Ridley, deep in the corner now, with the centring
attempt unable to get through. Harris held the puck at the
blueline, the Sting swarmed but were unable to get the go ahead
goal. Sarnia was out shot 14 to 8 over the first two periods but
rallied back to make the unofficial shot clock total 24 to18 in
the Sting’s favour in this game, their second tie score in
consecutive contests. |
