Port Elgin Home Hardware/Dunlop Fuels Novice BB Earn Split of 1st Two Games of Series
The Port Elgin Home Hardware/Dunlop Fuels Novice BB team began their WOAA Twolan Division playoffs against a very evenly matched Goderich Sailors team, earning a split of the first two games of the series in Port Elgin.
In Game 1 on Thursday February 17th, Hale Schoneck led the Storm with his second career 4-goal game. Schoneck opened the scoring in the 1st period with a goal off a beautiful end-to-end rush. Goderich was able to get on the board shortly after that from an unlucky deflection into the Storm’s net off a centering pass from the corner.
The 2nd period saw the Sailors dominate the Storm, outscoring them 4-1 in that frame to take a 5-2 lead into the final period. Ever-resilient, the Storm would not give up. After allowing Goderich to score a power play goal early in the third with Austin Hagen serving two for tripping, the Saugeen Shores began to storm back with Schoneck’s third goal and one from Jacob Condy who stuffed home a rebound from Reed Stauffer to bring the score to 6-4. With a little more than half a period to go, with what would have surely broken the spirits of many a team, Goderich was narrowly able to beat goalie Jarrett Blue on a wrap-around goal, surging ahead by 3 goals. However, the boys from Saugeen Shores would not quit and poured it on in a fight to the finish. With an extra attacker on the ice, Hagen found the back of the net after being sprung free from a beautiful assist from Stauffer. With less than a minute to go, Schoneck went on yet another end-to-end rush and finished the play by freezing the goaltender with a nifty forehand-backhand deke. It was too little, too late however as the game ended with the scoreboard reading 7-6 Goderich.
Game 2 on Sunday, February 20th was quite a different affair. Goderich came out very strong on the first shift of the game, dominating the play in the Storm zone, but could not register a shot. The game then tilted in favour of the home team, as the Storm were able to score on their 1st 4 shots of the game, putting this game away early. Condy got things going early with a goal high glove side on the Sailor netminder. Condy also narrowly missed an earlier identical goal when his high shot rattled the crossbar after beating the goalie. Schoneck lifted the lead to 2 goals on his signature end-to-end rush play. Dane Heipel added his first playoff goal to make it a three goal lead midway through the second period followed shortly by Nicholas Lalonde, who found a juicy rebound in the blue ice and banged in his first career goal, thus causing an eruption of emotion from both the bench and the stands. The only question left to be answered was could the team preserve goalie Jarrett Blue’s shutout. That question was answered midway through the final period when Goderich’s best player Kaden Hoggarth finished a beautiful breakout play, beating Blue with a terrific glove-side wrister. At the buzzer, Saugeen Shores had knotted the series at ones with a well deserved 4-1 victory. Game 3 is slated for Thursday night at the Goderich Memorial arena at 7pm. Go Storm Go!!
Written by: George Condy