On Thursday November 7, the undefeated Atom Southwest Bullets hockey team, of the LM LL, sporting a 2-0-1 record entering this match battled it out, in Bothwell, with the MT. Brydges Cougar Gold team with an equally impressive record of 3-0-0.
. The first period began with both teams fighting for loose pucks all over the ice as one team was destined to lose for the first time this season. SWB opened the scoring with only 38.8 seconds remaining in the first period. Braxton Haggith (#8) with a great effort on defence trapped a clearing pass by MBCG along the left wing board and slid the puck towards the corner where Evan Demaiter (#26) and Owen Dewild (#2) fought off the MBCG defence and slipped the puck to a waiting Peter Katsoulakos (#16) along the lip of the face-off circle, picking up the puck on his back-hand with his back to the goalie, spinning around with the puck and in one quick motion after drawing the puck to his forehand rifled a wrist shot over the glove hand of a surprised MBCG goalie into the far top corner of the net for the lone goal of the period. Demaiter and Dewild picked up assists on the play. SWB did have to kill off a 2 minute penalty to Dewild who was charged with a body checking penalty with 5:36 remaining in the period. Jacob Smith (#30), the SWB goalie, made some spectacular saves during this MBG power play to preserve the scoreless tie.
The second period opened with a much more defensive minded MBCG team. With only six shots fired at the SWB goalie and only two shots fired at the MBCG goalie, both teams made their shots count as the period ended in a 2-2 tie. MBG scored first in this period with a power play goal to tie the game with 7:59 remaining, after Dewild was sent off for hooking at 9:41. Less than a minute later, MBG went up 2-1 with 7:05 remaining on some sloppy neutral ice puck handling and sloppy line changes by SWB resulting in the two quick goals. Smith had no chance on either of those goals. SWB started to mount some pressure on MBG and with just a little over 4 minutes left in the period, Demaiter passed off to Sawyer Watson (#36) near the left wing just inside the MBG blue-line who in turn dropped the puck off to a streaking Dewild along the left wing boards. Dewild then seized an opportunity to skate across the ice in front of the goalie where he roofed a backhand off the bottom of the cross bar behind the MBG goalie to even the score at 2.
MBG came out on the attack in the third period as SWB were outshot in the period 14-7 and outscored 3-2. However, SWB scored first in the period when Haggith and Katsoulakos both earned assists on a goal by Dewild just 1:48 into the final frame to take a 3-2 lead. MBG quickly got that back scoring just 1:28 later to tie the game at 3 when the SWB team was caught napping. The rest of the period was end to end action with both goalies shining to keep the game close. Smith was especially sharp for SWB. SWB got the go ahead un-assisted goal with 6:31 remaining on a nice effort by Haggith to make it 4-3. MBG got this goal back again with 3:06 remaining to tie the game at 4. It appeared the teams were headed for a draw when MBG caught a lucky break and was able to beat a screened Smith with 45.0 seconds remaining on the clock.
The SWB team pushed one final time but were unable to beat the MBG goalie. Morgan Hutson (#24) and William Lambrecht (#10), as well as Owen King (#22) for SWB were a tower of strength along the defence as they continued to break up potential scoring threats from the opposition all game long. The forwards played excellent two way hockey all night long as they were pumped for this game. Katsoulakos was especially impressive having broken potential breakaways, on at least two occasions , by using his speed to get back into a defensive position and break up the scoring threat. Ethan Keating (#6) and Dylan Henry (#40), although not having picked up any points tonight, were instrumental in helping set the tone for a very entertaining and terrific effort against one of the elite teams in the league.
Come out and support your ATOM SOUTHWEST BULLETS team and be rewarded in some very entertaining hockey in the Lambton Middlesex Local League.
Special Thanks to Sam Katsoulakas for writing this Article!