The Ventura Mariners Bantam Killer Bees knew they were going to be shorthanded Sunday morning against the Beach City
Lightning. Jason Hart was paying his debt to society and Shane Heller was sidelined with an injury. If that wasn't bad enough,
Luke Tickle almost missed the game start (more on this later). The short bench would get even shorter. Early in the game,
Brian Zacchia got a ten minute misconduct penalty for wearing his mouth guard improperly. Yeah, it was another one of "those"
games. Already short of forwards, Coach Sergey moved defenseman Patrick Dalton up front. On his first shift, he hurt his shoulder
and couldn't return to the ice. Things were not looking good.
The kids that were left made a
conscious decision to elevate their game and take advantage of the extra ice time. Conor Gleason came screaming out of the
gate and got the Mariners on the board with a billiards shot off of the goalie's back. The boys kept pouring it on, spending
most of the time on the attack. Even better, they played physical. Unlike last week when they got intimidated, the Killer
Bees were the aggressors. TJ Samuel was jacking dudes all over the rink, leaving Lightning-shaped dents in the boards. Corey
Werden also unleashed his inner-sadist and crushed some guys with beautiful open-ice hits. You know I love it when our big
boys are playing nasty. Despite the domination, Beach City tied the game up on a monster slapshot.
Early
in the second period, the Mariners would reclaim the lead. Luke took a nice feed from Killian Anderson and slipped it underneath
a moving goaltender. A minute later the boys extended their lead. Niko Utash crashed the net with his stick on the ice. TJ
zipped a perfect passed and Niko deflected it in for his first goal. The kids were flying and momentum was on the Mariners
side, but penalty trouble would slow things down. Corey and Josh Kuchinski took turns going to the box for things the other
team was allowed to do. At one point, we had three guys in the sin bin. Luckily, the penalty kill was great. Led by Brian,
trying to redeem himself for the mouth guard incident, the team killed off a lengthy 5 on 3. Again, the Mariners dominated
the period, but the Lightning scored late to make it a game.
In the third period, the boys regained
their composure and got back to playing solid hockey. The defense, which was kind of shaky in the first, clamped down and
got the job done. Blake Burlew was impressive both with the smart decisions he made in our zone and the plays he made at the
Lightning blue line. Cameron Torres found his timing and absolutely unloaded on the puck carriers dumb enough to come his
way. Tom Dobrokhot fought hard in the corners and in front of the net, even scooping a puck out as it was headed across the
goal line. JB Lovelace, son of J. Lo, was great at both ends, making big stops and notching an assist on Niko's goal. Goalie
Gianluca Allen was as good as I've ever seen him. As the last line of defense, he made sure his team was going to win. He
fought off tough shots, scrambled for rebounds and made a killer toe save that can only be classified as larceny.
Still
clinging to a one goal lead, Conor decided it was time to put the game away. He sprung himself with a set of nifty moves and
got a one-on-one with the Lightning goalie. It was no contest. The insurance goal was in the net. A few minutes later, Killian
showed why you put pressure on the puck. He closed in from a zone away, laid a hit and popped the puck lose in front of the
net. A couple of whacks later he gave the Mariners their fifth goal. The game ended with the boys earning a well-deserved
5-2 victory. This was a particularly satisfying win because the Killer Bees had to overcome so much adversity between the
short bench and the lopsided officiating. When they faced an obstacle, they blasted through and managed to shine.
One
of the cool things about playing at KHS is that you get to sit above the bench and consequently you get to hear what the coaches
and kids are saying. All game long, the Lightning were getting away with stuff that are kids weren't. One of the biggest sore
points was how much contact Beach City was having with our goalie after the whistle. On several occaisions, Sergey called
the ref over to complain about this. The ref assured Sergey that he had warned the Lightning about hitting the goalie and
the next time it happened they would go to the box. Well, it kept happeneing and no penalties were issued. Sergey called the
ref over again, and we were treated to this little exchange:
Sergey: I thought you said you had warned
them about goalie contact.
Ref: I did.
Sergey: Then why aren't you putting
him in the box?
Ref: That was a different kid than I warned before.
Sergey:
They have 18 skaters on their team. Are you going to give out 18 warnings before you actually put someone in the box?
That's
why we love Sergey.
Did you ever notice how winning makes things a whole lot funnier? Here's an example:
Coach Jere, with 2 travel hockey kids, a man that's been doing this for 7 years, went to the wrong rink. He showed up at Glacial
Lakewood instead of KHS. Granted, it used to be called Glacial Anaheim, but it's been years. After calling us up with a "hey,
where are you guys?" he did manage to get to the correct venue with a minute to spare. Now, had we lost the game, it would
have been a touchy subject, but because we won it's hysterical. Rock on, Jere!
One last thing. Coach
Steve made his debut behind the bench. I'm willing to give him credit for our highest scoring game yet, mostly because he's
running the offense and my kid's a center. Hey, you don't crap where you eat, right? JK, Steve is great with the kids and
we're lucky to have him.
Note: Goalie
Mark Becica backed up Gianluca. He will presumably get the start next week. Though he didn't play, I have to mention him because
his mom is the biggest fan of this site. Besides, she has spooky powers and I wouldn't want to cross her.
