The fall season is upon us. It is a time when the days are getting shorter and the leaves begin to turn and drop. That
was certainly bad news for the Pasadena Maple Leafs who came to Easy Street Arena on Sunday to take on the Ventura Mariners
Bantam Killer Bees. The boys were looking to bounce back from the Valencia loss and hit the ice with as close to a full team
as they ever have.
The game started out tentative, with the Mariners holding a slight edge in
play. Goalie Mark Becica was tested early and sent the Leafs shooters back to the bench sad and dejected. The defense was
much tighter this week. Tom Dobrokhot and Blake Burlew didn't leave any room for Pasadena to operate in. JB Lovelace helped
out the offense by sneaking into the play. The forwards did a great job of back-checking as well. Basically, the puck just
didn't spend a lot of time in our end. Instead of icing the puck to relieve the pressure, our boys worked as a 5-man unit
to break it out.
Just passed the mid-point of the first, Corey Werden broke through with pretty goal.
For the rest of the first and half of the second, the boys seemed to be building in confidence. All three lines were buzzing
the net and getting great scoring chances. It just felt like they were ready to explode. On a two-man advantage, Luke Tickle
popped the biscuit out to the point and Josh Kuchinski fickin' murdered the puck, slapping it into the net. And with that,
the floodgates were open.
A few seconds later, TJ Samuel ripped a shot to the far side and beat the
goalie. Moments later, Jason Hart scored, and then Luke. Not long after that, Shane Heller took a nice feed from Killian Anderson
and got his first goal of the season. The Mariners put five in the net in two minutes. It was truly amazing to see. The boys
picked up where they left off in the third, getting goals from Jason, Shane, Niko Utash and Patrick Dalton. The boys walked
away with this one 10-3. The massive output of offense surpassed all three of their previous games together. Instead of using
the Zamboni to clean the ice, they had to use rakes to clean up all of the Leafs.
Obviuosly, Pasadena
isn't the best team in the league, but this was quite an impressive win and a great confidence builder. Our kids didn't score
by taking the puck coast-to-coast against a weak opponent. They scored goals by fore-checking, passing, and getting open.
Players like Conor Gleason and Killian were looking to pass first and were finding their teammates where they were supposed
to be. Unlike last week, the boys were the aggressors. They played tough and didn't get rattled. They also did it clean. If
you take away the two mystery penalties, and the ludicrous bench minor, which I can do 'cause it's my column, the Mariners
played flawlessly.
There were a couple of kids that really impressed me. First was Shane Heller,
who we haven't seen a whole lot of. He had at least five big hits and scored a couple of goals. It's a nice surprise for the
team to be able to add such a dynamic power forward to the lineup. The other wow-worthy performance came from Josh Kuchinski.
He had his best game yet. Not only was he stopping everything on defense, he was getting things going on the other end. He
was hitting and intimidating. He found his monster slap-shot. He met and exceeded all expectations.
As
stated previously, this was the Mariners best offensive game. There were 8 different goal scorers and 11 kids with points.
Though the score-sheet doesn't bear any resemblance to what actually happened, here's the point totals: Corey (1G, 1A), Josh
(1G), TJ (1G, 3A), Jason (2G, 1A), Luke (1G,2A), Shane (2G), Niko (1G, 2A), Patrick (1G), Brian Zacchia (1A), Tom (1A), Blake
(1A). Absent from this list are Killian and Conor which is a bunch of bunk. Both of them had primary assists on a pair of goals each.
The
Mariners finish the pre-season at 2-2, which ain't bad. There's still a lot of work to do, but I think with a full roster
and the coaches we have, this team can make some waves this season. To me, it just feels like everything is coming together.
The kids are becoming friends off the ice and learning to play together on the ice. The parents are also growing closer. It's
starting to feel like big family. Sure we're a dysfunctional family full of black sheep, but it's a start.
