by George Condy
The Saugeen Shores Legion 340 Peewee B’s began their
2014-15 season with an exhibition game on Saturday, Sept. 27th
against the Bruce Peninsula Predators.
The game started out fairly slowly as both teams obviously tried to find their skating legs and both coaching staffs tried to figure out line chemistry. With lots of back and forth action that seemed to get stifled at both blue lines, no great chances were generated by either team, until some great short-handed fore-checking by Dane Heipel created a turnover inside the Predator zone. Heipel then picked up the loose puck, drove to the net and fired a low-wrister that the goalie was able to make a left pad save on. Jake Condy picked up the rebound and from behind the end line found Heipel in front who banged home the one-timer to score the Storm’s first goal of the season, with 1:22 to go in the 1st.
Austin Hagen made it 2-0 early in the 2nd period, after what coach Jeff Scott surely had to enjoy. The bench boss has preached a pressure game to his young team this year, and the message has not fallen on deaf ears. D-man Brady Moulton offered the pressure this time and battled for the puck deep in the offensive zone. Great one-on-one work allowed him to take possession of the puck and he made a perfect pass out in front to Hagen who sniped a one-timer bar down blocker side that the netminder had no chance on.
Hagen made it 3-0 with his 2nd goal of the game, that of the garbage variety. Showing his trademark burst of speed, Hagen streaked down the left side of the ice and found Frannie Alpajaro out front with a beautiful pass. Alpajaro’s shot went off the goalies right pad and trickled up and over it and headed for the left post. Hagen, who had not given up on the play after his pass, was standing on the doorstep and jammed home the disc.
The Predators tried to make a game of it midway through the 2nd period with their first goal, beating home-netminder Jarrett Blue off a nice 2 on 1 play. That was as close as it would get though as barely a minute later Condy would answer back with a beautiful individual effort to score another Storm short-handed goal. Battling the last defender with a hard fought inside move for a loose puck on the penalty kill, Condy drove down the right side into the offensive zone and created time and space with a nifty figure-eight move, waiting for reinforcements to arrive from a line change. He then walked the seam trying to find Heipel in front who was covered and instead elected to fire a hard wrister high glove side, beating the goalie for the 4-1 lead.
The Storm would then score 4 goals in the first 4 minutes of the 3rd period putting away the competition on this bright sunny ‘summer’ afternoon. Sam Flarity scored his first of the season off a one-timer fed from Condy behind the end line, in what is quickly becoming his favourite play. James Fowler added a pair of goals and Condy added another to close out the scoring for the Storm, who coasted to an 8-1 victory. Other highlights of the game included a half game shutout by Tanner Bromfield and some great heads up passing from all the players. The team certainly looked great for so early in the season. Way to go Storm! Good luck on the upcoming season!