REBELS ROCKED THE BARN ... AND the KNIGHTHAWKS
There may not be fancy dressing rooms, a food booth, or even a pop machine ... but that didn't stop the REBELS fans from showing up for some great HOCKEY!
There wasn't even standing room available in the Chatty Arena this weekend, as the community came out to support our 'Air-Tech Mechanical' BANTAM REP REBELS in GAME 3 & 4 of their OMHA SEMI-FINAL SERIES.
After a disappointing finish in GAME 3 last night, the boys dug deep and blew the visiting Norwich Knighthawks away this afternoon in GAME 4.
Saturday night's game came and went without a goal on the REBELS side of the scoreboard. The boys just couldn't get their passes on point, as the aggressive Knighthawks intercepted their plays and threw them right off their game. Austin McComb rang one off the cross bar early in the 1st, but that was as close as the boys got to the net.
Lawson Cumming kept his team in the game with MANY amazing saves, but the visitors were successful in netting 2 in the 2nd period and 1 midway through the 3rd, to take the game 3 - 0.
This afternoon, was a completely different story! The loyal fans filled the arena once again, blowing their horns, shaking their pom-poms, cheering and singing along to the music. It was an awesome sight and very LOUD!!!
The REBELS weren't going to be pushed around this time, and less than two minutes into the game, we were on the penalty kill ... and just 17 seconds later
Mitch Faust intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, went roaring to the net on a breakaway and SCORED top shelf. The crowd went wild!!!
The Knighthawks went on their own breakaway and got on the board at 3:53, but
Austin McComb answered back 17 seconds later with an awesome top corner goal, assisted by
Danny Rourke.
This first half of the 2nd period went back and forth, and finally on an attempt by Norwich to clear the puck,
Calvin Stewart knocked it down and sent it back towards the net.
Faust took a whack at it that was blocked, but
Hunter Schultz popped it in over the goalie's head at 7:06.
On another penalty kill,
Jake Moran fought for the puck at our blue line, got control and flew down centre ice with a shot top corner at 5:23, assist going to
Carson Torrie.
It was looking bleak when 10 seconds later, another REBEL headed to the box and it was a 5-on-3. But with Lawson's incredible skill in the net, the boys managed it well ... and
McComb got a hold of the puck, took off on a breakaway and scored 5-hole at 4:11.
If you're counting ... that's 3 Short Handed goals and 5 - 1 for the good guys going into the 3rd.
The 3rd period saw NO REBELS in the box, and a very warm bench on the visitors' side.
It wasn't until the final 2 minutes of the period that the goal horns blasted again, after Stewart blocked the attempt to clear the zone and Faust fired in his 2nd goal of the game at 1:53.
Norwich didn't deal with this very well and two of them got sent to the box for misbehaving with just 0:52 left on the clock.
Amazingly it only took 2 seconds from puck drop for Mitch Stevens' slap shot to hit the back of the net, assisted by Moran and Torrie at 0:50 ... and with that 7 - 1 WIN ... there WILL be a GAME 5 in Norwich next Saturday at 4:00pm.
it is another do-or-die situation for the Bantams, and we would all love to host the Norwich boys for a GAME 6 back here in the CHATTY BARN on Sunday at 3:00pm, so ...
GO - REBELS - GO