Mar 08, 2018 | GeoffRead | 640 views
KnightHawks' Heroes Come in Many Shapes and Sizes
There are times in History, and hockey seasons, when a hero appears to save the day. When one individual throws the team on their back and carries them to glory and to victory.
Last night, with their season on the line against the North London Nationals 13, the KnightHawks saw not one but several such heroes emerge. The result was a definitive 5-1 victory.
One such hero was player of the game Sam Schafer, who was scrambling all over the ice fighting ferociously for the puck, winning battles, and earning two assists.
Another was scorer James Nielsen, who was skating like the wind, streaking in on the Nationals' goal, and picking up two goals to raise his total to 22 while adding an assist.
A third was Zoe Read, who led the way for her teammates with her never-die attitude, winning puck battles, crashing the net, and making nice tape-to-tape passes as she picked up her team leading 10th assist of the season and added a "garbage goal" to boot on a hard drive to the net for a rebound.
Owen Askew also added his name to the KnightHawks pantheon of heroes, scoring two nice goals with characteristic offensive flair.
Kayden Keating, in net, performed heroically as well. The goalie made multiple excellent saves and nearly earned a shutout, despite the fact that the Nationals had some very good chances to score.
Connor Devlin too entered the pantheon, moving from forward to defense for the contest where, as his coaches suspected, his cerebral approach to the game paid dividends. Devlin read plays and rushes well all night, cutting the Nationals off at the proverbial pass and breaking up scoring chances. He also showed good decision-making skills with the puck - rather than firing it blindly into crowds up the boards, Devlin looked to make good passes breaking out of the zone.
Likewise, Paul Steele, who switched places with Devlin, did excellent work at left wing, battling hard for the puck, particularly as he fought to get it out at the point.
These players' contributions stood out on the night, but in truth, it was a great team effort. The defense played well, and did a nice job of keeping the Nationals to the outside. The forwards were persistent and hounded the Nationals into turnovers and mistakes.
One interesting storyline in the game was Devlin's late season crack at Greg the Impaler's team lead in penalty minutes. Devlin picked up two penalties in the game, one for tripping and one for hooking. As these were his first penalty minutes of the season he has now accrued four minutes to move into sole possession of second place on the team in time spent in the sin bin. Suddenly, the Impaler's six minutes seem like they might not be enough for him to retain his crown as the team's most feared pugilist. Look for the Impaler to increase the nasty quotient to his game on Saturday as he fights off Devlin's charge.
Go KnightHawks go!