The Saugeen Shores Dunlop Fuels Novice BB Storm hosted the Kincardine Kinucks for an exhibition match on October 9 and walked away with an exciting 3-2 victory.
The Storm struck first with an early goal in the first two minutes of the first period with a sweet breakaway goal from centre Sam Maksymyk. He picked his spot and labeled it. Kincardine came on strong but the Storm defensive pairings of Isaac Fewster/Hunter Cannon and Jack Kozelenko/Cameron Lightfoot held tough supported by 3 back-to-back saves from Storm goalie Dex Wasylishyn who was looking good in the early season.
The Storm managed to kill a tripping penalty with no apparent trouble and held on to their 1-0 lead at the end of the first period.
Leading into the second period, Ben Lalonde put the Storm up 2-0 on a pretty goal with help from Isaac Fewster and Shawn Charlebois.
Kincardine found their groove and put the screws on the Storm with a near miss upstairs from Brennan Long. This was followed by a breakaway goal by Kincardine’s Kendon Zettle with 1:55 left to play in the second putting the Kinucks within 1 goal of the Storm.
The Storm weathered another close call as Kincardine’s Bredy Hewitt just missed the net with seconds left to play in the second period.
Early in the third period the Kinucks took a penalty which put them on their heels for a couple of minutes, but they came back strong creating several chances for themselves as the two teams went end to end for most of the period. Kincardine’s goalie Everett Luinstra was solid as a rock.
With 5:05 minutes to play in the third the Storm’s Jacob Condy opened up the lead to 3-1 with a quick goal from a rebound on a shot from Ethan Greig, set up by Cameron Lightfoot. The Storm did not sit back and Cameron Lightfoot came within inches on another breakaway with only 1:12 left to play.
The final minute of play kept the crowd on the edge of their seats when Kincardine pulled their goalie and mounted a pressure-cooker attack on the Storm but were held in check by Storm defense with solid play from Isaac Fewster and Cam Lightfoot.
With 45 seconds left to play in the game, Storm goalie Dex Wasylishyn made a great save only to be beaten by Kincardine’s Liam Colhoun 5 seconds later, buying Kincardine another goal and putting them within reach of the Storm.
A frantic final half-minute ended well for the Storm as they came out of the game with a 3-2 win.
Written by: James Mackintosh