Sep 11, 2012 | lbishop | 1122 views
Huskies Wrap Up Red Wing Tourney
The Huskies wrapped up the Toronto Red Wing Early Bird Tournament, headed home after round robin play after suffering defeat in their remaining 3 games. The Huskies faced off against 2 of the provinces top teams in the Whity Wildcats and Toronto Jr. Canadiens (who went on to win the tournament) and faced a tough matchup with Alliance west division rival the Chatham-Kent Cyclones.
After posting a 5-0 victory over the Oshawa Minor Generals, the Huskies were quickly brought back to earth facing the Toronto Jr. Canadiens in a Friday morning matchup in which they dropped at 10-0 decision. The Huskies almost seemed like they were hypnotized by the speedy skilled team from the GTHL. The Huskies spent most of the game puck watching and they just couldnt snap out of it. Huskies goaltender Gavin Herring made several highlight reel saves throughout the game but was essentially hung out to dry. The Huskies have now seen how high the bar is and will need to take the experience and learn from it.
The Huskies then faced Chatham, who was playing their first game of the tournament 3 hours later in which would be the Huskies 3rd game in a 24 hour period. The Alliance rivals both had opportunities early on but it was Chatham that struck first on the power play at 2:04 of the first. Just seconds into the 2nd period the Huskies took another penalty which Chatham once again made the Huskies pay for by pulling ahead 2 - 0 at the 13:46 mark of the second. With both teams down a man in the opening of the third period, Chatham went up by 3 as they notched a quick one at 14:34 during 4 on 4 play. The Huskies bounced back though shortly after when Jeff Lindsay in hard on the forecheck beat the Cyclone D to the puck and was able to put it out front to Matthew Hogan who tapped it in to bring the Huskies within 2. That would be as close as the Huskies would get despite several opportunites in the 3rd.
Saturday the Whitby Wildcats hosted the Huskies in an early afternoon game. The Wildcats notched 2 goals in the opening 10 minutes of the game, both on the power play, but the Huskies answered back with one of their own at even strength at 3:12 when Matthew Hogan burried a nice wrist shot after streaking down the wing after receiving a pass from Jeff Lindsay. The Wildcats managed to add another tally before the 1st period was out. The second period saw both teams get their chances with Whitby having the slight edge on the shot clock. Gavin Herring held his team in between the pipes carrying the team into the 3rd period down 3 - 1. Another power play though to start the 3rd period by the Wildcats seemed to just take the life out of the Huskies. With the Huskies seemingly out of gas the Wildcats could smell blood and couldnt do anything wrong as they managed to notched 5 more goals before the final buzzer went.
Despite the losing record the Huskies will need to take the positives and lessons learned, regroup and look to open the regular season next week on the road for their western road trip.