Feb 22, 2017 | Karin Stockwell | 683 views
OH, BABY!
In a game that was anyone’s right up until the final buzzer,
the Moggie Valley Timber Midget LL Rebels dug deep, played hard, and won their
first game in WOAA post-season action at home against the regular season North Division leaders Bruce Peninsula 1 team on
Tuesday night.
The visitors got on the board first, but that’s all they would get in the opening frame and the period ended 1-0. In the initial minutes of the second, the opponents scored again, and the Rebels fell behind 2-0. Payback came when Brody Elliot tipped in a blast from the point by defenseman and assistant captain, Josh Fritz. And it came again when Mason Hanna scored on a pass from Jay Rourke.
Then came the TSN turning point: Brock McIntosh decided the team needed to take control of the game and led the charge with a quick jump on the puck in the neutral zone that his lightning-quick feet turned into a breakaway. Brock was focused on one thing and one thing only: burying the puck in the net. He found his mark, and the Rebels held the lead for the first time. As it was proving all game, a one-goal lead wasn’t much insurance. BrucePen tied the score at three less than a minute later, just before the second period buzzer.
Things started to unravel in the third with a series of Rebels penalties, and the opponents scored to take back the lead before the team could recover. In true Rebel spirit, the boys fought on. Jay Rourke netted one, set up by assistant captain, Brodey Barwick and Noah McNab who did a superb job filling in on defence. BrucePen answered with a goal and pulled ahead by one. With 1:47 left on the clock, and a stack of BrucePen players in the penalty box, Rebels coach Will Elliot made the strategic move to pull the goalie. The boys rose to the challenge, and “Breakaway” McIntosh found the net a second time on a pass from team captain, Matt Woodroffe, tying the game at five goals apiece.
In tense action, with both teams battling hard in each other’s ends, the game was still up for grabs. Then, with just 21 seconds on the clock, Theodore Stockwell found himself alone in front of the net with a perfect pass set up by Johnathon Bumstead and Matt Woodroffe. He tucked the puck in the five-hole to give the Rebels the tenuous one-goal lead.
That last goal was all the Rebels would need to put the game away. In a nail-biting finish spent mostly in the home end, the good guys defended bravely for those seemingly endless dying moments, helped by netminder, Andrew Stockwell, who made a game-saving stop with just seconds left to go.
Playing, arguably, the best hockey of their entire season, the Rebels earned a much-deserved win in what is best described as a supreme team effort. Well done, boys!