Saturday 1 November 2014

STEAM SEND POSSE PACKING, PREPARE FOR GRIZZLIES

The Summerland Steam got a 2 game weekend started off right at the Summerland Arena on Halloween, beating the Princeton Posse by a score of 3-1. It was the first meeting of the season between the Steam and the Posse, and it didn't disappoint as there was a near instant dislike formed between the two division rivals.

GAME STORY


Cole Woodliffe got the scoring started early, just 34 seconds into the hockey game as he took a short pass to the front of the net from Paulsen Lautard and tucked it between the legs of Posse goaltender Stephen Heslop to give the Steam a very early 1-0 lead with his 9th of the season.

Woodliffe would then return the favour with a pass to Lautard in the neutral zone that led to a goal to extend the lead to 2 near the midway point of the period. With 9:39 to play in the first frame Lautard took the pass from Woodliffe and rifled a shot through the five-hole of Heslop from the right wing, picking up his team leading 14th goal of the season.

After the two goals the Steam got into some penalty trouble, which seems to happen to this team in the first period on most nights. Thankfully, no harm was done as they spent some time honing their PK skills to end the period. They were outshot in the period because of the penalties taken by a count of 16-9, but goaltender Brett Huber was once again up to the task stopping all 16.

In the second period there was no scoring to speak of, but again a whole lot of penalty trouble for the Steam as they were forced to kill 3 minor penalties back to back to back in the first half of the 2nd period. Again, no harm was done thanks to good defensive positioning and stellar goaltending from Huber.

In the early part of the third period on a powerplay the Steam were able to extend their lead to 3-0 thanks to a goal from Michael McEachern, his first in the KIJHL. McEachern was able to free himself up and find some space to rip a shot through traffic, high and over the glove of Princeton goaltender Stephen Heslop.

Eden Dubchak would get one back and break Brett Huber's bid for his 2nd goose egg of the season on a powerplay just a couple of minutes later, but that would round out the scoring at 3-1.

WHAT'S TO COME

The Steam had a couple of AP's in the lineup from OHA Prep in Sam Jones and Mitchell Torrens on Friday night. Both were playing their second game with the Steam this week and both played meaningful minutes in all situations for the team in this hockey game. Jones showed great poise for a young player and showed off his ability to both skate the puck out of his own zone as well as make a good first pass. Torrens, who played with Cole Williams for the majority of the hockey game, was a complete wrecking ball on this night. He showed off his skating ability as well as a physical presence, unsuspectingly demolishing several Posse players with a few devastating hits throughout the hockey game. Both young men will once again suit up for Summerland on Sunday afternoon when they host the Revelstoke Grizzlies.


The Grizzlies come into Summerland having turned things around this season with new ownership and all new staff. After recording only 9 wins last season, they are already 2/3 of the way to their 2013/14 win total with 6. They sit third in their division with a 6-8-2-2 record in 18 games, but are 2-5-1-2 in their last 10. Revelstoke comes into Summerland to play their 3rd game in 3 days after losing to Chase in OT on Friday and taking a road trip to Kamloops on Saturday night.

The puck will drop at the Summerland Arena at 2PM but you can catch myself and my broadcast partner Mike Swanson on the webcast for a pregame show about 1:45.

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