Saturday evening the Ventura Mariners Bantam Killer Bees took on the Jr. Reign. I'll spare you the suspense and say that
the game ended in a 3-3 tie. It was a head-scratcher for sure. How could the Killer Bees only muster a tie against the second
to last place team? I've been thinking about it all weekend and I've decided to bring in a special team of forensic experts
to analyze the evidence.
The game started like one would expect. The Mariners jumped out and
pressed the Jr. Reign in their zone. Line after line dominated and attacked, generating multiple scoring chances per shift.
It seemed like just a matter of time before the flood gates would open. Then, on a seemingly innocent play, a Jr. Reign player
skated down the wing, let a soft shot go and somehow scored. The Mariners were down by one, but there was no panic. They were
in control of the game. Weren't they?
Defenseman Luke Tickle had numerous opportunities to put shots
on the net. He shot one 25 feet wide, whiffed on one, and finally sent one that was going about two miles an hour that still
missed by two feet. On the bench I was joking and teasing him about it. With about five minutes left in the period, still
keeping the joke going, I pulled him aside and made him point to the net. With a laugh he indicated the goal with his glove
and went out to line up. Niko Utash and Killian Anderson were scrapping in the crease, trying to bang the puck in, when they
got the brilliant idea to kick the puck out to the point. Luke skated in and ripped it high in the net. Hey hey, my obnoxious
sense of humor turned into good coaching. All kidding aside, I was really happy for Luke. He backed that goal up with a solid
game on D.
The game continued with utter Mariner dominance. But, it wasn't translating to the scoreboard.
All three lines laid siege upon the Reign. Aj Zavitz hit the post. Conradod Gesauldi had at least a half dozen "almost" goals.
Josh Donovan was strong on the puck and drove the net. Shawn Wentzel almost had a break-away. EJ Frank's back-checking created
turnovers that led to chances. There was plenty of set up time and great passing. It defied rationalization that the Mariners
weren't scoring. Then after all of the pretty stuff, they got an ugly one. The boys had an offensive zone face off. The ref
dropped the puck and Brian Zacchia just smacked it at the net and it went in. It was nice to score, but even the boys on the
bench had to admit it was a pretty lame goal.
In the third period the Jr. Reign struck twice to take
the lead. First, a shot came in that Goalie Timur Katsnelson stopped. He angled the rebound to the side, but unfortunately
a Reign player was right there and put the puck into an open net, Moments later, a bad clear turned into a perfect pass to
the slot and the Reign put it in. Now, there was some panic from the Mariners. They cranked it up and put even more pressure
on. It finally paid off with about four minutes left. Tyler Serianne was jamming the puck at in the crease. Luke snuck in
from the point and got a shot. The rebound came out and Zach Marshall put in the equalizer. BTW, I am extremely proud that
two of my defensemen scored goals.
The rest of the game saw the Mariners hammer away at the Jr. Reign.
It was by some miracle that the game ended in a 3-3 tie. Tom Dobrokhot had five or six awesome shots from the point. The puck
bounced around the crease but wouldn't go in. Conrado had the game on his stick with about 10 seconds left, but was off-balance
and couldn't chip that thing in the open net.
Okay, I just got the tests back from the lab and here's
the results:
Offense: The boys set up and executed Sergey's system perfectly. The first line pounded
away. Brian, AJ, and Conrado all had great chances. The second line played like they were possessed. Niko was a monster on
the fore-check, Killian had his ninja skills on display, and Tyler's hitting loosened things up. The third line was the best
we've seen them. Shawn was skating, Josh was getting chances, and EJ had confidence with the puck. All nine forwards played
hard and did what they were taught to do. I can't find any fault here.
Defense: Brad Kriegel and
Blake Burlew were solid at both ends of the ice. Luke, Zach, and Tom all contributed to the offense. Patrick Gibson shook
off his fear and played the game I've been wanting him to play. At one point, the Jr. Reign's biggest player entered the zone.
Patrick hit him hard, knocked him off the puck, then cleared the zone. There were a couple of mistakes, but all in all the
blue-liners performed well.
Goaltendeing: Timur probably would like to have the first goal back,
but other than that he had a nice 18 save effort. Normally that would be enough.
The X-Factor: The
three goals scored against the Mariners were about the only three times the Reign had the puck. The hockey gods are fickle.
Sometimes that's just the way it goes. You can radically outplay an opponent and still walk away with only one point.
The
Ref-Factor: Let me just say...
Final Analysis: Doo doo happens. Let's move on
Correction
Last
week I reported that I had three fans, but apparently that number is growing. It seems Blake's Dad likes curl up in his Snuggie,
crack open a 7-ounce Michelob Ultra-Light and read these game reports.
