In game one of the worst two-game weekend ever scheduled, the Ventura Mariners Bantam Killer Bees took on the Anahiem
Jr. Ducks at the friendly confines of Easy Street Arena. One thing was immediately clear: The Ducks came to play and the Mariners
did not. Our boys found themselves under seige from the first drop of the puck. They had very few good scoring chances and
spent way too much time scrambling around in their own zone. Though the first period would end in a scoreless tie, the Mariner
were living dangerously. The Ducks put several pucks off the post and goalie Brian Felt was under constant attack.
In
the second period, that dangerous living came with a price. The Jr. Ducks finally solved the goalie and put one in. A couple
minutes later, they scored again on the powerplay. The Mariners had dug themselves a 0-2 hole. The boys just looked out of
sync. They couldn't break the puck out. They couldn't set up the offense. Heck, they could even make a line change. The team
got busted twice for too many men on the ice. It looked like the 5-game win streak was coming to an end.
With
about a minute to go in the middle frame Brian Zacchia put a puck on net from the blue line. I don't know if he was even shooting,
or just dumping it in so he could change. Somehow this puck went through five sets of legs and found its way to the back of
the net. The Ducks goalie never saw it. It wasn't the greatest looking thing in the world, but it got the Mariners on the
board. Even Brian Z., who has an unusually high opinion of his skills, had to admit it was a lucky break.
Brian
Z. wasn't done. In the early stages of the third, he set up Conrado Gesualdi for a bang/bang play that pulled the Mariners
even. The boys started to look more alert and were beginning to take over. At the half-way mark, D-man Brad Kriegel hit Killian
Anderson in the neutral zone with a nice tape-to-tape pass. Coach Sergey was yelling for him to take it wide, dump it, put
it deep, anything. Instead, Killian muscled it through three defenders and got one-on-one with the goalie. He faked the netminder
into a twisted pretzel and scored to give the Mariners the lead. I realize he's my son, but that was a pretty cool goal.
By
now, we are used to the boy's pattern of playing sluggish for two periods, then dominating the third. Was this another one
of those games? Not so fast. A couple of minutes later, the Ducks struck back, tying the game at 3-3. This one wasn't in the
bag yet. Brian Z. retook the lead off of a Conrado feed. Hey, that rhymes. I didn't see the goal because there was a lot of
traffic in front of the net, but Mr. Zacchia assures me it was all skill, not luck. Moments later, Conrado struck again to
give the Mariners a two-goal cushion. Okay, now we have it, right? Well, those pesky Ducks just wouldn't go away.
At
just under 2 minutes, Anaheim scored again to pull within one. This was a barn burner for sure. There were some pretty tense
moments down the stretch. Brian F. needed everything in his arsenal to keep the puck out of the net. He would finished the
game with 27 huge saves. The Ducks pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, but Niko Utash, Tyler Serianne, Killian, Blake
Burlew, and Tom Dobrokhot ate up the clock and denied any quality looks. When the horn thankfully sounded, the Mariners had
outlasted a hungry Ducks team for a 5-4 victory.
This was a game that I wish I could have watched
as a parent and not as a coach. A lot of yous guys told me what a thrilling match you thought it was, but all I saw was a
bunch of kids underperforming. I would have rather seen this awesome come-from-behind-win from the stands, than this mistake-fest
from the bench.
To be fair, I thought the second line played well. They were consistently on the
attack and didn't surrender any goals. Also, Josh Donovan had a strong game in limited minutes. He didn't have a lot of help,
but took matters in his own hands to generate a number of great chances. Physically, the game was a nightmare. Killian had
some big hits and Shawn Wentzel plastered a kid to the boards, but that was about it. Even Patrick Gibson and EJ Frank were
at least trying to play the body. The rest of the guys looked like they were playing a roller-hockey pick-up game. Keep this
in mind because it has a big impact on the next game.
Scoring Change
As you may
have noticed, the score-sheet has been full of mistakes. Conrado got one of Brian Z. goals two weeks ago, robbing him of a
hat-trick. Last week, Josh got Killian's goal. Also, it would seem that Conrado got one of AJ Zavitz goals last week. So to
correct things, Conrado's powerplay goal goes to AJ. Josh still owes Killian one. In addition, according to this week's sheet,
the final score was 6-5. I'm giving the extra Mariner goal to Patrick because I like his effort as of late. The Ducks extra
score goes to the assistant to the assistant coach Zach Marshall who apperently scored on his own net, from the bench, in
civilian clothes, with no stick.
Shout Out
Mad props to former Killer Bee Luke Tickle
and his elderly father for coming out to cheer the boys on.
