Standings After February 24th:
1. Knights 12 (62-23)
2. Yeti 12 (66-18)
3. Eagles 10 (55-23)
4. Colonials 6 (43-31)
5. Bear Claw 6 (58-64)
6. Hounds 2 (34-99)
7. Walkers 0 (22-77)
Yeti 9 Walkers 0 (Only saw a little bit of this game, sorry for the short recap)
Derrian Matchock made his season debut filling in for the walkers last night and did everything he could do to keep them to within striking distance, but in the end, playing ironman and playing against a team like the Yeti was too much for the walkers to overcome. The walkers were missing a bunch of people, leaving them with just Steve Hetrick, Tony Conforto, Mark Chesley and Troy Gaydosh to skate out against a team that will be expected to compete for another championship at season’s end, but they only found themselves behind by 4 goals going into the 3rd period. Unfortunately, the 3rd period has been a problem for the walkers all season and that trend continued last night. Playing against the yeti with a full bench is tough enough let alone no subs, and things quickly got away for the walkers in the 3rd period. Derrian looked good in net for most of the game, but may have wore down some at the end. We have a postgame interview out to Derrian to get his thoughts on the walkers effort in the game. The yeti had most of their squad there including Dave Jewell, Derik Day, Zach Smith and Cody Schuckers. Zach Smith and RJ did most of the damage to the walkers last night but team chemistry appears to be no issues for the yeti despite not getting their full squad there for many of the games to open up the season. They will look to keep their 6 game winning streak going when they take on the Eagles next week while the Walkers will look for a sub or two along with a better 3rd period when they take on the colonials next week. We know the Colonials will probably have lots of room on their bench this season. Tim Herman informed the team that he will not be able to play for at least another 4 weeks after getting his shoulder evaluated today.
Bear Claw 14 Hounds 6
The Bear Claw got back on track with a 14-6 win over the Hounds last night. It was an impressive team effort for the Bear Claw with contributions from everyone in the lineup. They had Anthony back in the lineup along with Peach to round out their team last night. The Hounds were missing Jaron Buffone and Cody Haag leaving them with only one sub while Bubba was not able to make it last night opening up the door for Brian Anderson to play goalie (should have stayed home and enjoyed the bye week). Tony Conforto recently bought goalie equipment and is willing to goalie when needed if he is given enough notice to bring his stuff with him. After some beginners luck in net on the first 5 or 6 bear claw shot attempts, the Bear Claw poured it on after deflecting their first one in and opened up a 6-1 lead by the end of the first period. Adam McKinley skated out for the Hounds and got their first period goal to temporarily close the gap to 3-1 but the Bear Claw started to exploit the Hounds flaw in net last night. A 6-1 lead after 1 turned into an 11-2 lead after 2 periods. There was a stretch in the 2nd period when every Bear Claw shot seemed to find its way in net. The Hounds scored 4 goals in the 3rd period (Bassett and Waltman) and got some much better goalie play in the 3rd period to close the gap to 12-6 but Anthony Schuckers and the bear claw scored a couple late goals to push the winning margin up to 8. It was painful playing goalie but its still nice to see Kaden Coulter playing well for the Bear Claw on the other end. The hounds had their share of shots on goal last night but Kaden continues to hold his own. Hopefully Bubba can make it back for the Hounds next week.
Knights 6 Eagles 4
In a battle of 2 unbeaten’s, the Knights used a couple of 3 goal runs to remain unbeaten on the season. The Eagles got up early when Jerred Amick scored, but the Knights scored 3 unanswered goals to go up 3-1 at the end of the first period. Brandon Reiter, Noah and Jason Stamler each scored for the Knights with Noah making some good passes that led to goals. The Eagles answered with 3 goals of their own in the 2nd period to go up 4-3 in the later stages of the 2nd period (Amick had another and Llewellyn had the other 2) but the Knights had another 3 goal run to close out the 2nd period. Brandon Reiter scored twice in that stretch including one as the 2nd period was about to end to put the Knights up 6-4 going into the 3rd period. Neither team scored in the 3rd period with each goalie playing well for their respective teams. Henry Sutter was not there for the Eagles which opened up the door for Adam to fill in. Clint stayed pretty focused in this game knowing the Eagles would be coming at him and his team pretty hard in this game. The Knights were without Cory while the Eagles were without Zac Gray and Austin Boyd. They are both supposed to be there next week but Josh Clontz will not be there. Zac Gray will make his season debut next week for the Eagles. The knights remain undefeated on the season and will go up against the Hounds next week. The Eagles get their first matchup with the Yeti next week.
Andrew Britton (Hounds)
1. 14-6 loss to the Bear Claw last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the loss? The score was lopsided but it felt much closer majority of the time
2. You guys and your goalie appeared to have a much better 3rd period. Was it encouraging to at least end the game on a good note? . Yeah, it shows that we can be resilient which makes for better chemistry
3. What positives can you take out of the game last night? A positive is that we created and had a good amount of offensive chances compared to some other games earlier in the season
4. What have you observed from Kaden in the two games you have played against them? He does really well positioning himself while using his size so he’s never easy to play against
5. Corey and Adam have tried to fill in as much as possible to help the team out. How do you think they have fit in with the team when they play? Corey and Adam fit in well. They have good hockey IQ so it doesn’t take much for them to jump in with our team
Zach Smith (Yeti)
1. 9-0 win over the walkers last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the win? . I liked our hustle throughout the game. I don't know how many shots we gave up, but I know it wasn't many. We made sure Adam had a lot of rest for his next two games.
2. How do you think team chemistry with you, Derik, Dave and Cody has been in your little bit of time together this season? It would be nice to have Cody for more than 2 weeks at a time. I can tell our chemistry isn't as strong with passing and knowing where each other is going to be. I'm just happy to play with an elite talant like him when he is here. I always pass to Derik like he is right-handed, but I think he is used to that because he is good at receiving crappy passes. Dave and I seem to be on the same page most of the time, and I think we compliment each other with our playing styles very well.
3. The walkers hung tough for 2 periods but you guys pulled away in the 3rd. What do you think you guys did better in the 3rd period? . I suppose they might have gotten tired toward the end, but they seemed to keep skating as the game wound down. We had chances throughout the game, but I think we finished on more of our chances in the 3rd.
4. You also reffed a couple games last night. Whats your impression of the bear claw, knights and eagles after reffing their games last night? The knights are the favorite to win, in my opinion. They don't have any weaknesses on their team. It's going to take a complete effort to beat them. The eagles hung tough with them, and if it wasn't for a couple quick goals to end the second, it would have come down to the wire. The bear claw have the speed and talent to compete with the top teams, but they need to play better as a team and be sound defensively to have a chance. If they keep working on it, I like their chances.
5. Derrian and his wife Kelsey will be this years Randy Carlson recipients. Whats your take on the Randy Carlson tournament and is there anything you would change about it if you could? I love it and look forward to it every year. I think you guys do a great job organizing it and can't think of anything I would change. It would be hard, but it would be cool to get more high level out of town teams to come and have an A and a B group. I think that would be a change of pace considering there are usually 4 or 5 teams that realistically have a chance of winning it. Most teams are just happy to be playing and supporting a good cause.
Derrian Matchock (Fill in goalie for the walkers last night)
1. You were back to playing hockey last night. Considering everything that you are going through, was it nice to be back on the court for a distraction? it’s always nice to get out and play. With everything going on and work it’s tough. Looking forward to the tournament and brockway league for sure
2. You were dialed in for 2 periods then things kind of got away. What do you think went wrong in the 3rd period for the team? fatigue definitely set in. I let up a couple I should’ve had but it’s part of the game
3. What can you say about the overall team effort in the game? for being Ironman I thought everyone played well against a really good team
4. The Randy Carlson event will be in May. How did you two feel when Tim and Dan approached you both about being this years recipients? we were surprised but we were really grateful it was us. Didn’t even know we were being considered.
5. If you don’t mind sharing, hows Kelsey doing these days and what is her medical prognosis like going forward? we don’t know much yet. Chemo was over early January and her scan to tell us if it’s gone or not is mid march. She just had her gallbladder out last week as well so we’re hopeful everything is all clear moving forward
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