Burlington Eagles – A Classy Team
The Highlanders Atoms travelled down to central park in Burlington this Saturday to try and tackle the first place Eagles. The Atoms have been playing some very inspired and emotional hockey lately, the hopes where to come into the central arena and clip the wings of the high flying eagles.
To begin the first frame the boys came out very uncharacteristically, whether it was the fact they knew they were playing the first place team or the boys where just a little exhausted emotionally! They boys seemed to let the Eagles come to them! That is a very dangerous game indeed, as its very obvious why this Burlington team has only lost one contest this year. The Eagles positioning, pursuit of the puck and teamanship was on full display! Their desire to win the one on one battles, support one and other, and to take away time in space left our boys spinning. The eagle is normally a solitary bird, however these eagles flew in packs of 5 shift after shift relentless on the biscuit! Within 3 minutes the Eagles took the lead, on a suspect icing wave off by the official? 3 minutes after that the Eagles swooped another one in for a 2-0 advantage. The Atoms doing their best to take away the speed of the Eagles, and establish an offensive attack of their own. After a crisp breakout, Loosemore springs Cameron Lightfoot in a breakaway but the Burlington tender gets a paddle on it! Lightfoot brought a lot of zest and determination to the line up in his first game as a Highlander AP. Within the same shift after a quick up from Torrie, Loosemore strikes a stretch pass to Lightfoot getting a tough shot of the wall, forcing the Eagles goalie to make a quality save. For the most part of the period the boys seemed like field mice to these birds of prey. The eagles would attack for 2 more before the end of the period.
To start the second frame, it was much of the same as in the first. The boys seemed to be on their heels and in scramble mode. However the line of Black, Ahrens and Lina take charge and start taking the Eagles game back to them! Off a tenacious fore check the line creates a scoring chance, but again the eagles goalie protects his nest. You could see the thought process in the rest of the team, if we apply pressure, and take away time and space, we get scoring chances. The period started to change as if it was another team out there against the high flyers! The Atoms applied pressure and the opportunities started to come their way! After a Eagles PP marker, the Atoms didn’t quit with the pressure! Brown attacks the Burlington defence and steals the puck, he streaks down the left side on a 2 on 1 with Black, Brown draws the lone defenseman to him and sets one on a platter for Black who throws it into the cookie jar for the Highlander lone goal! The frame ends 5-1 in little wins we tied the period 1-1! What the Atoms learned? Is if we play our game and don’t worry about the other team, we can and will compete with any team, including the best in the league!
In the 3rd the atoms got away from their great 2nd period effort resulting in much the same as the first. The game would end 11-1, in no way did the score reflect on how well Johnsen played in the pipes! He had to make save after save, many of them from the point blank range. What the team can take away from this game would be play your game! Your game is not sitting back allowing the other team to come to you! Your game is tenacious fore-check, relentless puck possession, effort and positioning, and desire to win the 1 on 1 battles. The eagles are a great team and a great way to measure yourselves as a team! They did not see the Highlander Atoms that the fans and coaches are accustom to seeing! But next time they will! We didn’t clip the wings of the high flying Eagles, but the second period effort we gave, they will keep in the back of the minds for the next game i am sure!
A special Thank you to the Classy Burlington Eagles hockey team, for the thoughtful gesture for our team and our mending teammate “Hutchie”. The support and kind gifts and well wishes go a long way and our team and Hutchie appreciate it. We may be competitors on the ice, but off the ice we are one big hockey family and you exemplified what hockey is truly about, friendship, competition and sportsmanship.
Article written by Darrell Loosemore