By Lincoln Simpson
It was a brisk morning on Saturday October 27th as teams took to the rink in the second week of McDonald’s Atom House League hockey in Sarnia. Clearwater Arena was the venue for bouts between Green and White, Grey and Red, Yellow and Orange, and Black and Blue.
McDonald’s Green and White faced off in the early game. White played a bit of rope-a-dope and Green jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead. Connor Maness finished the nice passing play from MacNeil and Krasinkiwicz before Krasinkiwicz netted one of his own. Craig Washington woke the sleeping giant that was his White team who cut the Green team’s lead in half with only 0:21 seconds left in the first period. In the second, Jeremy MacMillan knotted it up at 2-2. The deadlock was broken five minutes later though when Ethan Hyde pounded home the 3-2 marker for team White. Alex Weir added to the lead with two third period goals before MacMillan netted his second of the game. The final in this one was 6-2 for White.
Next up were Grey and Red who played a tough defensive chess match. Xander Stafford capitalized for team Red on a beautiful pass from Ashton Ramos to put away the only goal of the first period. The second period saw a little more offensive action, with a Nolan Jennings lamplighter for Grey that tied the game. The game winner came halfway through the second when Red’s Matt Davies played tic-tac-toe with Cyrus Maness and gave Red the lead that they never relinquished for their first win of the season. Stars of the game were the two goaltenders Nic Bishop for team Red and Mitchel Clarke for Grey who turned away a barrage of shots and kept the third period scoreless, with the final score 2-1 for Red.
Another nail bitter was up next featuring McDonald’s Yellow and Orange. In the first, Jack Hogan buried the pass from Liam Fogal to put Yellow on the board. Answering back for Orange was Victor Tang with the late first period tally for Orange. In the second, Anthony Bullock and Ewan Morrison each scored for Orange before Adam Walker and Jack Hogan brought Yellow back within one goal. In the final period Hunter Christianson scored the game-tying goal with 5:07 left. Anthony Bullock’s goal quickly nullified the McDonald’s Yellow come back by scoring his second goal of the game just 0:30 later and putting Orange in front once again. A late push by Yellow couldn’t beat tender Evan Meggett and Orange took the 5-4 victory.
The final game of the morning was a seesaw battle featuring Black and Blue’s scoring machines. Kevin Gray opened the affair for Black when he put away a beautiful marker with assists from Blair and Glavin. Owen Pereira, Owen Dufour, and Turner Jenkins each scored for Blue though, shooting them out to an early 3-1 McDonald’s Blue lead. Black stuck around though, and in the second held Blue scoreless while Glavin and Snauwaert found the back of the net for Black and regained the lead. Blue woke up in the third though and sprung back into action with three quick goals. Owen Dufour finished his hat trick with a pair of goals followed by another Pereira marker to put the Blue team up by two. Black stuck around though running the two-minute drill. They clawed back within one with a Chris Blair goal (his fourth point of the contest) with 1:39 left on the clock. But the lead was too steep and Blue held on for the toughly fought 6-5 win.
