February 28th Results:
Red 6 Gray 5 (Shootout)
Pink 17 Green 5
Gold 7 Blue 4
Updated Standings After February 28th Games (4 weeks)
1. Gold 6 (16/8) ***
2. Pink 6 (35/25)
3. Blue 4 (19/17) ***
4. Green 4 (28/33) ***
5. Black 3 (24/23) ***
6. Red 3 (16/21)
7. Gray 2 (22/34)
Dont forget: Top 3 teams are guaranteed a best of 3 semi final series starting April 18th. 4th place to 7th place will have to win a 4th place tournament on April 11th to get into a semi final series against the 1st seed starting April 18th.
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Last nights schedule just happened to have the top 2 teams playing against one another (Gold/Blue), the middle two teams (Green/Pink) and the bottom 2 teams (Red/Gray) playing against one another. Team Gray sits in last place in the standings after 4 weeks but it isn't from lack of effort. They have now lost 2 games in shootouts. Brandon Reiter filled in last week for a missing Kevin Smith but would not commit to taking his spot for the rest of the season. Brandon was not able to make it last night. Rooster also was not present but Jake Kline agreed to fill in (Jake's team had a bye last night). Steve Kalgren was not able to make it either and neither was Trenton Bembenic. Despite that, Gray was able to manage to get another point in the standings but fell short in the shootout. Team Red picked up their first win thanks to a shootout goal from Laken Dodd. She continues to impress in the short amount of time she has been playing in Reynoldsville.
Team Pink was held to 3 goals last week but they more than made up for it last night. Zach Foradori had perhaps the biggest night of everyone. In all, pink scored 17 goals. Kaden Coulter, starting goalie for team Green, tried to play through an injury during the game. Team Gray's starting goalie, Dean Risser, has an interview below and offers some encouragement for the young goalie. The win by team Pink leapfrogged them ahead of team Green for 2nd place in the standings after 4 weeks. Team Green will try to regroup next week against Team Gold. From the sounds of it, Zach Smith will not be present for Team Gold next week. Team Pink will be off next week. They will look to carry their momentum when they face off against Team Gold on March 14th.
Team Gold defeated Team Blue by a score of 7-4 to improve to 3-0 on the season. Zach Smith scored 5 of the teams 7 goals. The game was tight most of the way until Gold scored a couple early goals in the 3rd period to stretch a 4-1 lead into a 6-1 lead. For the 2nd week in a row, Adam McKinley bailed his team out on some mistakes they made that could have led to some goals on the other end and a much tighter game. Dave Jewell was able to get a couple by McKinley in the 3rd period but the game was out of reach by then. See below to see what Zach Smith had to say about Adam McKinley's performance in net:
Zach Foradori (Pink)
1. Nice win for you guys tonight. What can you say about the overall team effort tonight? Effort was great. Finally put together a full 45 minutes
2. Were you surprised at the margin of victory? I was. They have a young goalie but they have the players that can either keep up with you score wise or help the goalie out a lot. We just got lucky and caught them on an off night
3. How tough was it playing against your good friend Larry K? It’s always tough playing against my Lord and savior Larry K. I’m mentally drained from it
4. You had a nice game offensively. You like the mix of talent around you? RJ did a good job drafting a team that has played together before. We had chemistry from the start and I hope it’ll only get better
5. You may be spending some more time on the baseball field this spring. You looking forward to trying to make brockway a championship team? Brockway definitely has the talent to make a run for the D9 title. Consistent solid pitching and timely hitting is a good recipe to be very competitive
Zach Smith (Gold)
1. 7 to 3 win tonight. What can you say about the overall team effort tonight? I thought we played very well. The blue team has a lot of speed and we kept it in check for most of the game by pressuring them and making them make errant passes. Towards the end we got a little bit sloppy but I think we may have gotten a little tired there only having 1 sub.
2. Do you think the passing was any better this week? I thought it was better but we still have to work on it a bit. I think teams know that bob and I want to try and find each other and they are taking away the lanes. But if my passes were on the sticks of my teammates instead of thier feet, that would help matters I suppose.
3. You led the way offensively. You like the mix of guys surrounding you on this team? I do like it. We are all responsible on the defensive side of the ball and that makes our counter game excel. It also helps that we have the best goaltender in the league to cover up our lapses that we have occasionally.
4. They had chances tonight. How do you think Adam played? He saved our bacon on multiple occasions. I had a couple bad turnovers that he made some nice saves on and I definitely think it would of been a closer game if he wasn't back there. I don't know how old he is but to be this good for how long he's been playong is very impressive.
5. 3 games into the season. What do you think of the overall team play? I think we are playing pretty good. We have some spots during the game that we are reeling in the defensive side but we have a great counter attack that teams usually get burnt on. I think you could say that about any of Bob's teams. We definitely have a good shot to do some damage this season.
Peach (Green)
1. Tough night for your team tonight. Anything positive to take out of it? It’s hard to find a positive in a loss like that. It stinks. But hopefully we got it out of our system.
2. The team appeared to give up. Is it tough playing in those kind of games? After it got away it wasn’t easy trying to stay in the game. You try to minimize the damage, and then you just wait for it to end. So yeah, nobody likes being on that end of it, but it happens.
3. What was your overall impression of team pink? Team Pink is a very well rounded team that puts the pedal down and doesn’t let up. Kudos to them. They smoked us like a Newport.
4. It’s no secret that your goalie had an off night (all goalies go through that). Do you know if anyone tried to encourage him at all afterwards? Kaden is young, and he has lots of years to keep getting better and put that one behind him. I did talk to him between periods, and he did have an LBI that he suffered in the first period. He toughed it out, even though it wasn’t pretty, and hopefully he makes a full recovery and continues to grow his game.
5. The team is still 2 and 1 with plenty of talent. What kind of expectations do you have going forward? It’s early in the season, and Larry put together a pretty good team. There’s some talented guys on this team, and after tonight, there’s nowhere to look but up. Our toughness wasn’t in the lineup tonight either, otherwise they wouldn’t have taken so many liberties. It was just one game, I’m not too worried Dean Risser (Gray)
1. Shootout loss tonight. What can you say about the overall team effort tonight? Team played well, there were some nice passes and chemistry within the lineup.
2. Were you happy with how you played individually? Never happy with a loss, I gave up 2 goals that never should have gotten behind me. Just happy to be playing and getting a sweat on.
3. You like being part of the spotlight in the shootouts? Being in the spotlight is a reach, there is just as much pressure on the shooter. It’s a fun aspect of the game, I like the challenge.
4. What do you think went wrong on that shootout goal? Ah nothing went wrong, Laken did a great job. I had stopped her earlier in the shootout and knew where she wanted to go with the ball, she lifted it higher than I anticipated.
5. One of the leagues newest goalies had a tough night in the game that proceeded your game (gave up 17 goals). What word of advice can you offer a new goalie in these competitive leagues? Forget about it, short term memory. Even NHL goalies get chased from games, it’s about the next game. Stick with it and continue to improve every game. You’ll never give up 17 ever again Jerred Amick (Red) 1. Shootout win tonight. What can you say about the overall team effort tonight? Finally a big win for us which will give us some momentum boost for the team. Everyone chipping in to get a W is a good morale booster.
2. What do you think was the difference between winning and losing tonight? We had some great goaltending by Henry and some great defensive play from Laken that created some key turnovers. Also everyone just making smart plays, like clearing it instead of attempting an outlet maybe resulting in a turnover.
3. This team has some new guys to reynoldsville hockey. How do you think they have done so far? Getting new people involved is always great as it seems like more people are quitting than starting. However most of the players that I have seen that are newer are doing quite well. Hockey will come easier after learning to skate proficiently.
4. We have already had 4 shootouts in this league, including 2 from you guys. Do you think the teams seem pretty well balanced? Actually looking at the teams on paper looks pretty bad in my opinion. Some questionable picks and decisions by multiple captains has resulted in some balancing issues. Then with multiple people filling in for people on a nightly basis, that also throws something’s off. Nonetheless we’ve been fortunate that the games have been so close. Henry sutter was able to stop 50+ shots shelled at him opening night by bobs juggernaut of a team, and we still managed to take them to overtime and get an extra point loss.
5. You have been playing hockey for a long time now. How do you compare the competition now to when you first started playing? Unfortunately i feel that the competition has gone downhill mainly due to lack of interest in the younger generation. Reminiscing about early 2000s XHL, there was an absolute plethora of talent and competition back then that we are lacking today. Where are the 20-year-old-bob-Andersons coming into the league? Bob, Brandon, and Kevin all competing for scoring titles in 2006, are still competing for the same in 2022. Are the kids just doing soccer, football, or video games instead? How can we get more interested at a high school level? What will hockey in this area in 20 years look like?
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