March 2nd Results

Invaders 16  Venom 4

Brandon Reiter’s goal with 5 seconds left officially clinched the mercy rule win for the Invaders in last nights finale.   The goal was Reiter’s 5^th of the night in what he hopes will get him back to scoring more goals as playoffs soon approach.  Opportunities have been there for him all season long, but he has brought out the best in the opposing competition and the goalies this season.   Opposing teams can only hope that last nights 5 goal night won’t carry over into the playoffs.   Jason Stamler and Andy each had 4 goals in last nights win as well.  Despite the loss, the Venom came ready to play and found themselves tied at 1 after Troy Gaydosh scored 5 minutes into the game.  They will want to forget about the last 10 minutes of the first period and the last 5 minutes of the 3^rd period.  The invaders would go onto score the next 8 goals of the first period to go up 9-1.  Venom goalie Tony Conforto knew he would face a lot of shots in this game.  For a 30 minute stretch, the Venom and Tony played about as well as they could have played.  Unfortunately, the last 10 minutes of the first period set the tone in this game.  Tyler Waltman scored a 2^nd period goal to close the gap to 10-2 and Cody Haag had a couple quick third period goals to close the gap to 11-4 but the Invaders would go onto score 5 goals in the closing 5 minutes to get the mercy rule win.  Laken had a couple goals for the Invaders while Cory had 1.  Zach Smith was not present last night.   The venom were missing Morgan Lyons and Jeremy Johnson.  The Invaders offered to let the venom pick up Dave Jewell to give them more of a challenge on the offensive side, but the venom wanted to go with what they got.   The Invaders can score in bunches against any team and showed that last night.  They will get their 2^nd game against the Yeti next week.   A slow start got the best of the Yeti the last time these 2 teams faced one another.  The venom will get another game against the Bear Claw next week.  Just a little while ago, Andy reached out saying about how well the Venom played last night, they just couldn’t put out the fire quick enough in the first period.

Yeti 4  Eagles 2

For the 2^nd time in 3 weeks, the Yeti picked up a 4-2 win over the Eagles.  The game a couple weeks ago may not have been a true indication considering they both had to play a double header that night.  Both teams were well rested when last nights game took place and it showed as both teams played a gritty defensive style hockey game last night.  We don’t always get to see these kinds of games in our league, but they are a lot of fun to watch.  If you are a player who is used to scoring goals or having a lot of chances to score goals, this game probably brought out some frustration.   Only 1 goal was scored in the first 2 periods of last nights game.  If not for Zach Foradori scoring, we may have had a 0-0 game going into the 3^rd period.  We aren’t sure if thats ever happened in an XHL game or not.   Both Adam and Clay played great in keeping their respective teams in the game.  Things opened up in the 3^rd period when Ben Rossi made a really nice pass to Jeff with Jeff getting a great shot off on Clay to put the Yeti ahead 2-0.  Normally, a 2 goal lead in the XHL isn’t safe, but it almost felt like this game was over after Jeff scored that goal.  Not because the Eagles are bad, but because of how good Adam was and how good the Yeti’s defense was last night.  Soon after Jeff’s goal, the Eagles finally got on the board when Denny scored to get his team to within a goal.  Unfortunately for the Eagles, Jeff would go on to score 2 more times in the 3^rd period, almost from the same spot to put them ahead 4-1 before Alex Waddell scored in the closing seconds to close out the game.  Following the game, Jeff said that both goalies played great and said that it could have been a higher scoring game if not for how well the goalies played.  The Yeti will get a 2^nd game against the Invaders next week while the Eagles will get a 2^nd game against the Colonials. 

Colonials 16  Bear Claw 8

Bob wanted a good challenge in this game and allowed the Bear Claw to pick up Brandon and Cory last night.  Unfortunately, Cory got stuck reffing which hurt the Bear Claw defensively.   They could have used Cory’s presence on defense to try to slow Noah down in this game.  Noah dominated both the Brockway and Reynoldsville fall draft leagues but was slowed the first part of this season with an injury.   He appears to be 100% after scoring 4 times last week and at least 10 times in this game.  Bob got back in the scoring column by scoring 3 goals last night while Jake had 2.   The colonials did not get good goal tending from Brian in this game but the 16 goals made his night much easier.   AJ Cebulskie led the Bear Claw offensively with at least 4 goals while Jaron Buffone, Derrian and Coltyn added some scoring as well.  Brandon Reiter filled in but he was good about giving the other guys more of a chance to play as much as they could.   The colonials swarmed on him defensively when he was on the court as they held him to one goal which came late in the game.  A bad stretch for the Colonials in the 2^nd period allowed the bear claw to get to within 8-6 but Noah kept scoring for the Colonials.  Kaden actually made a lot of good saves in this game despite the 16 goals going against him.   Noah just happens to be a nuisance for all opposing goalies.  The Colonials were ahead 6-2 after the first period and 13-7 after the 2^nd before pulling away in the 3^rd.  Brian played better in the 3^rd period after Adam gave him a real goalie stick (Adam’s words) late in the 2^nd period but it was a disappointing outing considering how encouraging last week’s outing was.  John Matchock will be welcome back with open arms in net for the Colonials as the regular season concludes and the playoffs begin. 

Tony Conforto (Venom)

1. 16-4 loss to the invaders last night. What can you say about the overall team effort in the loss? The team that was there played hard and played to the end. I think everyone tried to at least be competitive

2. First period went bad for yourself and the team again. What do you think you and your team did better after the first period? I think the other team took their foot off the gas a little and gave us a chance to play into the third period

3. You were expecting to face a ton of shots, which you did. How are you feeling after all those shots? Sore… Reiter caught me inside the thigh with a hard shot to start their scoring and it hurt like heck lol (I have the bruise to show for it) it gets frustrating letting in goals but facing shots and breakaways are the only way to improve….. so I guess it was good practice? Lol

4. What positives can you take out of the game? We got to play fast paced hockey with a lot of good people and nobody got seriously injured !

5. I keep asking people this. After watching the U.S. beat Canada in overtime, whats your thought on the 3 on 3 overtime format? I am fine with 3-3, 4 on 4, or 5 on 5 hockey. If anything Canada had the edge and just didn’t execute. Overall it was an awesome tournament the whole way to the end!