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Pats Give Dogs a Run
01/30/08
By Chris Clark, Mount Forest Confederate
A Better Team than Their Record... Patriots Keep Stride with Top Jr. C Team in the Province
Mount Forest’s Patriots are a better team than their record suggests – and they looked it Saturday night.
Hosting the number one ranked Jr. C team in the province, the Patriots ostensibly matched Kincardine’s Bulldogs stride for stride before being nipped 5-3.
“We played about as good as we can play,” head coach Gerry Hillier said of the Patriot effort. “There is enough talent there to compete, but more consistency is what we are trying to achieve. It was a fun game to be a part of.”
Buoyed by the number one ranked music in the Western league, the Pats skated to one of their best efforts of the season. They effectively killed off a 5-on-3 penalty midway through the second period to sit tied 1-1, after Doug McNair scored on a Luc Lang assist.
Tireless forechecker Josh Mitton then gave the home side a 2-1 lead at 10:39, but Kincardine answered back within seconds to restore the deadlock. Less than a minute later, with Mount Forest concentrating on the powerplay, Kincardine stole a shorthanded 3-2 goal.
The Patriots were in no mood to quit, and continued to work the puck into the Kincardine zone. Mitton was rewarded with the 3-3 tally with 1:35 to play in the second, as Kyle MacKenzie earned his second assist of the night, and Marlon Campbell earned his first.
The Patriots then learned it is hard to keep a sleeping Dog down, and Kincardine went ahead 4-3 with 50 seconds to go in the period. A final goal in the third sealed what was an uncertain victory for the Bulldogs.
As good as the Patriots looked against Kincardine, the Hanover Barons are an utterly different story.
Hanover appears to have Mount Forest’s number this season, and ran up an ugly 13-1 victory at home on Friday night, before following it with an 8-4 win in Mount Forest on Sunday afternoon. In their last five meetings, the Barons have outscored the Pats 51-12.
Bobby Nicol scored the lone Patriot marker on Friday, thanks to help from MacKenzie and Campbell, as Hanover led 5-0 and 9-0 at the intermissions. On the positive side, the game was largely penalty free, with Mount Forest picking up only six of the games 14 penalty minutes.
Baron Kevin Tremble feasted on the locals with four goals, and Ryan Zeggil tallied six assists. Jason Tremble scored two goals with four assists, and Steve Hillier scored twice, adding three assists on the night.
Coach Hillier said containing Hanover’s top line has been a challenge for the Patriots, but maintaining discipline and allowing fewer shots on net will allow Mount Forest to compete against any team on any given night in the league.
Mount Forest’s Atom players were in the house on Sunday afternoon to cheer their Patriots on, and had the glass decorated with several posters urging them to “skate hard”, “have fun”, and “kick butt”. However, the day and its 8-4 final belonged to the Barons.
The home side held a 2-1 lead in the early going, after Tim Posthumus scored one, and Joel Reeves added a second goal. Bobby Nicol, Josh Higginson and Dan Bennett earned the assists.
Hanover scored two more to steal a 3-2 lead, and then went on a run of four more goals to lead 6-2 in the second period. Mount Forest made a game of it with two goals to cut the damage to 6-4, but two late goals kept the Barons on the winning side of the scoresheet.
MacKenzie scored one from Bennett and Campbell, and Higginson wrapped up the day with an unassisted effort in the third period.
Tag(s): Mount Forest
