If you want to watch an interesting hockey movie “In the Crease” is the story of the California Wave’s quest for a USA Hockey national title. The movie bears the name of a controversial goal they meet along their journey. On Saturday, in the second round of the Wall Tournament our PeeWees scored some critical points in losing to the Bedford Bears. The first period went to the Titans 1-0 after Ryan took a pass from Billy to capitalize on a powerplay caused by a Bears roughing call. Chris made 11 saves in that first period, earning 2 points for the team. The second period looked to go the same way. The defense limited the shots to 6, which Chris stopped, and we spent 6 minutes on the power play. With 7:32 to go in the period, it looked like we had another power play goal. There was a scrum in front, stripes pointed to the net, and then waved it off, as we had a player with 2 feet in the crease. An odd call in PeeWees, especially when there appeared to be no interference with the goalie, but you can’t change the call, and he was in the crease (picture to follow). The period ended in a 0-0 tie, and we had another point.
The 3rd period saw a breakdown in discipline on the Titan side. 6 penalties, including some to our top scorers kept us on our heels offensively. We wound up killing two 5-on-3 situations, but 3 Bear goals in the first 5 minutes of the first period left us down 3-1. With the clock winding down, Ryan took it coast to coast, flipped it over the goalie and brought us to within 1 with 3:27 to work with . Finally our penalties got to us. We missed the opportunity to tie it, when Ryan got caught out of position, and scrambled back to stop the breakaway with a trip. Timmy followed him into the sin bin a few seconds later. After Ryan’s penalty was just over, they scored with 1:00 to go. The Bears had sealed the win, but the Titans came away with 3 points that would prove invaluable as the weekend unfolded. We went to bed Saturday with little hope of an afternoon game Sunday, but thought we might end the season against Woodbridge, a team with whom we had a score to settle. We had lost to them 6-2 earlier in the year, and they cancelled our home date with them. It would be a game to remember.
Editors note: With a busy work week and no more hockey to cover for our team, the reporting on this last weekend may drag a little….savor it slowly.
2 feet clearly in the crease
