Feb 22, 2013 | dblack | 1822 views
Chapman's Ice Cream Atoms Give League Leading Oakville A Huge Scare
On a sunny Sunday afternoon the Chapman’s Ice Cream Major Atoms were at home taking on the powerful Oakville Rangers. The Rangers have only been defeated once this season and in the three previous meetings, they controlled large portions of each game. Lately, the Atoms have been playing ok; however the intensity level seems to have been lacking a little. Today though, everyone brought their best effort and for most of this game, the Highlanders were the dominate team.
After a scoreless first period, Goldie (Owen Sound) would open the scoring with a shorthanded goal early in the second. From here, things turned extremely bazaar. The referees sensed that the players were dominating the show and made the necessary adjustments. They proceeded to have a steady stream of players parading to the penalty box from both teams. They proved successful in taking over the game as the last two periods were played with at least one player in the box. Any flow this game produced was efficiently snuffed out, frustration and tension escalated on the benches and in the stands. By the end of the second, the Rangers would score twice on the power play, to take a 2-1 lead.
The Highlanders and refs both upped their performances in the third. Early in the period, Black (Flesherton) would escape from a scramble along the boards and streak down the right side. He fed a backhand pass through the goalmouth area and Rahn (Durham) made no mistake converting and tying the game at 2. Finally the refs had seen enough. As Crowley followed a shot to the net swatting for a loose puck he found himself on the wrong end of not one or two minor penalties, but three all while taking several abusive shots from the Ranger Defense trying to protect their net minder. On the ensuing power play, the Rangers would take advantage and score to take a 3-2 lead. As the game progressed, and many more penalties assessed to both teams, the Rangers and Highlanders traded chances but both goalies stood tall. As the clock wound down and 1:06 remaining Kinch (Bruce Peninsula) was summoned to the bench in favour of an extra attacker. The game was placed in Crowley, Shakes and Colhoun's hands to try and grab the equalizer. They fought hard and produced some chances only to be denied again by the Ranger goalie. Finally, on a bad bounce the Rangers were able to clear it to centre and muscle it further to produce an empty net goal to round out the scoring.
Considering the atmosphere in the arena, this was the best effort from this team in some time. To limit the number one team to three power play goals and an empty net goal is a tremendous success. With 70 penalty minutes assessed mostly in the last 2 periods this Highlander team will not be pushed around as they progress towards contact hockey. If this team can sustain this intensity level through the remainder of the season, a lot of teams will be hoping to avoid them during the tournament.