Standings After February 17th:
1. Yeti 10 (57-18)
2. Knights 10 (56-19)
3. Eagles 10 (51-17)
4. Colonials 6 (43-31)
5. Bear Claw 4 (44-58)
6. Hounds 2 (28-85)
7. Walkers 0 (22-68)
Hounds 9 Walkers 5
Both the Hounds and Walkers entered Monday's game hoping to earn their first victory of the season. After a back-and-forth contest, the Hounds turned a tie game mid-way through the third period into a 9-5 win.
Tyler Stitt scored three goals with none bigger than the go-ahead goal in the third period. Facing a defensive zone face-off, Braxton McKinley won the draw forward to a streaking Stitt. Stitt was able to blow by the Walkers' defense to put his squad in front for good. He and his teammates closed the game with three goals in the final 2:20 of the game to make the score more lopsided than it actually was.
After Tyler Waltman opened the scoring, the Walkers scored the next 3 goals to open up their biggest lead of the game, 3-1. Denny Stinchcomb scored 2 of his 3 goals during that span and Mark Chesley added a shorthanded goal. But the Hounds answered with goals from Cody Haag and Adam McKinley to even the score after the first frame.
The second period saw each team score once and the two teams traded goals to open the third period before the Hounds broke the game open late. Mason Britton, filling in for Chris Snyder, earned the victory in net.
Both teams have had a tough start to the season, facing some of the league's best teams along the way. Though the Hounds got the win this time, the two teams will face each other two more times before the season ends. Things don't get any easier for the Walkers next week as they'll face the Yeti while the Hounds will look to keep the momentum going against the Bear Claw.
Knights 5 Colonials 3
Before the opening faceoff last night, the few colonial players that were present last night got together with their goalie last night (Henry Sutter) to discuss some kind of plan to prevent them from getting embarrassed in this game. There were only 4 skaters and one of them had to be recruited from the bye week Eagles last night (Jerred Amick). When seeing the full knights squad present on the other end, one of the colonial players simply said ----- we will at least get a little bit of some exercise tonight. Phil Mace informed the team a week ago that he would not be available for this game and Jay Edmiston informed the team over the weekend that he hurt his shoulder playing hockey. John Matchock was unable to play due to high school basketball obligations leaving them ironman after the Knights were at least nice enough to let them pick up Henry and Jerred. Both those players kept them in the game last night. Jerred Amick scored twice last night, one in the first period and another late in the second period with each of them being tying goals. The colonials played their best defensive game of the season, but Henry still had to do his part to keep the colonials in the game. Brandon Reiter and Jerred Amick exchanged 4 goals in the first 2 periods before the Knights scored 3 consecutive 3rd period goals to pull away. Noah scored early in the 3rd period with Jason Stamler scoring about 5 or 6 minutes later to put the knights up 4-2. Brandon Reiter scored his 3rd goal of the game in the later stages of the 3rd period to put the game away. Fred Terwilliger scored a power play goal for the colonials with around 2 minutes to go but that would be as close as they would get. The win improves the knights to 5-0 on the season while the colonials fell to 3 and 3. Right now, they are looking for people to show up. Tim Herman will know more about his shoulder in a week or so. High school basketball season is almost over for John Matchock while Phil Mace should be back after the bye.
Yeti 10 Bear Claw 2
A 5 goal 3rd period for the yeti put this game out of reach. Zach Smith scored 5 goals for the yeti in the win. Braxton McKinley scored 3 times and had a nice set up pass to Zach along the way to end his evening of filling in for the hounds, reffing at 720 and playing again at 820. Adam’s shut out was spoiled on a nice Zach Foradori backhand goal late in the 2nd period. The goal temporary got the bear claw to within 3 at 4-1 but the yeti pulled away at the end. Cody Schuckers scored a 3rd period goal as well for the yeti. Laken scored the bear claw’s other goal. Despite the loss, the Bear Claw got some very solid goal tending for 2 periods from Kaden Coulter. It took the Yeti several shots and several minutes to finally get a shot past him in the first period. The game was scoreless up until the 40 second mark of the first period and remained within striking distance for 2 periods but the flood gates opened in the 3rd period. Adam did not have to do as much but he made some good saves along the way including some good ones when the game was closer. Both teams were missing their share of guys (Rossi, Jewell, Anthony Schuckers, Brice Miller and Peach).
Brian Anderson (Colonials)
1. Though the Colonials lost 5-3 to the Knights on Monday, how did you feel about the effort considering you were ironman against the league's best team so far? This is one of those rare cases where I felt better about a loss to a great team like the Knights than to win against a team we are expected to win against. Going into the game, my realistic goal was just to get it into the 3rd period before getting mercy ruled and to get some good exercise along the way. A loss felt like a win last night.
You didn't have any goals in the game but you may have had one of your best defensive games of your career. What did you do differently and do you enjoy playing in lower scoring games like that? Going into the game, I knew scoring chances for us were probably going to be very limited so I wanted to try to stay back more. Playing ironman, I wanted to conserve more energy to play defense. Sometimes the best goals scored are the ones you help prevent. A lot of those blocked shots I had were pure luck as I closed my eyes each time I stood in the way of a shot. It really was a fun game to be a part of and I felt like it was good hockey on both sides. It was a lot more enjoyable than one of those 12-9 kind of games. I am normally disappointed if I can't put a goal or two up in a game but this was one of those games where I felt really good about the results.
Jerred Amick and Henry Sutter filled in for your team and were two big reasons why the score was as close as it was. How do you think they fit in with your group? I told Jerred after the game that he needs to put a colonial jersey on permanently. He is a perfect fit on any team and I think he would make a perfect colonial with our style of play. Like all of us, he is getting older but he is still playing some really good hockey. Henry is always good to have around, not just his skill, but his attitude and his leadership. He did everything we needed him to do last night. We just couldn’t find enough offense to even it out.
This is the first time the Colonials had to pick up a skater this season though this is the 4th time the team has needed to pick up a goalie. As the league president, how do you feel about teams picking up guys to ensure that there are enough players to field a team on a given night? I am not excited about it, but I would much rather see some good quality hockey games than to see teams playing ironman or having to forfeit. We all have to pay a decent amount of money to play hockey there and I would rather see people get to play as much as they can and to give us good hockey games. I consider the regular season games to be more laid back considering the playoffs is when it really matters. I would really like to avoid any fill ins (with the exception of goalies) once the playoffs begin.
The Knights and the Yeti in particular are pretty stacked top to bottom. The Eagles are no slouch either. Do you think the league should institute some type of "salary cap" in the future to level out the competition in the future, or is that something that the Fall League is good for? I really like the format we are using now. Some people like draft leagues and some really like the xhl even if they get on a team that isn’t as good as a draft team. I like our current format and dont plan on changing anything unless a lot of people stop playing or start complaining about it. I kept thinking last night, if the Yeti or Knights had one or two of their players go to the lower teams, we could really have a balanced out league, but I understand why those better teams and players like to have a chance to play alongside one another.
Morgan Lyons (Walkers)
1. Disappointing 9-5 loss last night to the hounds. What can you say about the overall team effort in the game? . I think the effort was there and we were just rushing passes and plays
2. What do you think went wrong in the 3rd period? I think we got tired and sloppy
3. Jaron on the other side of you. Did you enjoy getting to go up against him and his team last night? Yeah I enjoy playing against everyone on the hounds and messing around with them
4. What positives can you take out of the game? It was a good group of people so it was a fun game regardless of losing
5. Speaking of Jaron, he looks like he has a lot of promise to be a good player in this league. What are your thoughts? . I think he has gotten alot better in a short time and will keep getting better. He spends alot of time at brockway practicing and cares alot about hockey
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