It was an exciting
weekend of hockey for the Storm. The
team competed in the tightly matched Novice division of the Strathroy Rep
Olympics.
Play began Friday morning, with Saugeen Shores facing off against the Lambeth Lancers. The Lancers took an early lead, with a goal at the end of the first period. Throughout the game, the Storm maintained possession and had many scoring opportunities. With just under four minutes of play left in the game, Chad Lawrence was able to beat the Lancers’ goalie, making the score 1-1. Thirty seconds later, Dustin Heipel scored the Storm’s go-ahead goal. Brandon Embro and Luke Thornley assisted on the first goal, while Lucas Harris and Luke Thornley assisted on the winning shot.
On Friday evening, the Storm battled hard against the Amherstburg Stars. Amherstburg started the scoring with an early goal in the first period. Near the end of the first period, Chad Lawrence scored for the Strom, with an assist for goalie Lucas McCulloch. The play for the next two periods was evenly matched, with several Storm players having great scoring opportunities, but unable to make them count. The Stars took the lead in the second period, scored a third goal half-way through the third period, and a fourth goal at the 4 minute mark. With just over two minutes left in the third period, Austin Dunlop scored the Storm’s second goal, with assists going to Malachi McKinnon and Luke Thornley. Less than two minutes on the clock, Will Nason scored, with support from Chad Lawrence and Jason Legge. Despite tremendous effort and continued pressure right to the buzzer, the score remained 4-3 for the Stars.
Early Saturday morning saw the Storm meet up with the Ingersoll Express and despite the early hour, the Storm played like a well-oiled machine. Dustin Heipel began the scoring for the Storm near the end of half-way through the first period, and scored a second one three minutes later. Assists on the first two goals went to Brandon Embro and Chad Lawrence. The Express were able to make one count during the second period, bringing the score to 2-1 for the Storm. Defenseman Jason Legge riffled off a shot to make the final score 3-1 for the Storm.
In their final game of the round-robin, the Storm met the hometown Strathroy Rockets on Saturday afternoon. After three tightly-matched and hard-working games, the Storm were unable to muster the needed energy to match-up to this powerhouse of a team. Although the Storm did have a few opportunities to score, play was focused in the Storm’s own end for the majority of the game. In the end, the Rockets goalie maintained a shut-out and the home team won 4-0.
After round-robin play was complete, the Storm found themselves in a three-way tie for second with Ingersoll and Amherstburg. Based on goals for and against, the Storm was placed into the Novice Rep Olympics Consolation Final against the Amgerstburg Stars, which would take place early Sunday morning. The team spent the remainder of their off-time on Saturday swimming in the hotel pool and bonding over laser-tag, bowling, and arcade games at the Palasad in London.
The Storm came to the rink ready to compete on Sunday morning and played one of their best games of the season. Play throughout the game was rough and fast-paced, with both sides receiving penalties. Scoring began in the last minutes of the third period, with Amherstburg taking the early lead. Storm fans went crazy when Malachi McKinnon set up Dustin Heipel, who evened-up the score with a wicked shot late in the second period. Seconds into the third period, the Stars’ star player took advantage of a miscommunication close to the net, making the score 2-1 for Amherstburg. Seconds afterwards, with a pass from Chad Lawrence, Dustin Heipel was able to tie up the score, which remained tied right up to the buzzer ending regular play. Play during the first overtime saw both teams battling hard and earning great scoring chances. Goalie, Keenan Bender made several important saves to keep his team in the game. Neither team was able to crack the opposition during the first intermission; play went to a second, sudden death, three-on-three overtime. With fans on their feet, forwards Chad Lawrence and Dustin Heipel, and defenseman Austin Dunlop, left everything on the ice. Both forwards had excellent scoring chances, with the puck hitting the post on more than one occasion, and the defense making great decisions and plays to keep his team alive. In the end, a beautiful shot by the Stars’ strongest player ended the game in Amherstburgs’ favour. Although the Storm were unable to take the game, when all was said and done, all Storm fans were on their feet, cheering with pride.