The Erie North Shore Storm Novice Major team started the season with
three tough games this past weekend, all against AA teams.
On Friday night in Kingsville, the season kicked off with a very exciting game against Tecumseh. The first period was back and forth with many scoring chances for both teams with Tecumseh taking a lead in the last minute of the period. Erie North Shore responded with two straight goals to take the lead on tallies from Matteo Vilardi and Ben Buchner. However, Tecumseh would respond with three straight of their own including two right at the end of the second period. The Storm would respond on a Brock Bezaire marker to pull within one and although the home team had several scoring chances, they would not be able to bulge the twine again. Tecumseh put three pucks in during the last few minutes to send Erie North Shore to a 7-3 defeat to start the season. Quinn Brennan assisted on all three Storm goals, along with Nevan Branco and Ben Buchner.
On late Saturday afternoon, the Storm would travel to Belle River hoping for a better result. The defending OMHA champion Canadiens came out flying and the local Novice Major team held them to a one goal score until the second period when the Storm would get into penalty trouble. The speed and skill of the Belle River squad made life difficult for Erie North Shore defensively. There weren’t many highlights for the visiting team with the hosts scoring 5 power play goals en route to an 8-0 victory over the Storm.
Finally on Sunday afternoon, the team went on the road again, this time to Lasalle. The Sabres jumped out to a quick two goal lead half way through the opening frame, however, the Storm were skating much better in this game and were following the game plan. Although Lasalle would score again, the Storm would answer on a beautiful goal by Reyth Smith, assisted by Noah Dufour on a great back check and pass to start the play. The next handful of shifts were dominated by Erie North Shore with many scoring chances and constant pressure in the offensive zone, but unfortunately, the scoreboard would not reflect their efforts. Similar to the first game of the season, the opponents would score a couple late goals against Storm netminder Gannon Hunter, who was stellar in the game, making several keys saves including an amazing glove save, robbing the Sabres of a sure goal. A much better effort was put forward by the Storm squad. A few too many turnovers in the defensive zone and being snake bitten around the home team’s net would result in a 5-1 loss.
A tough start to the season; however, all of these teams are returning almost all of their players from the previous season and are rated as AA centres. The Storm have several new faces and will only continue to improve. Next weekend, the Stormwill host Lasalle on Friday night at 6 pm in Kingsville and then will travel to Chatham on Saturday afternoon. A good effort to finish the weekend , Storm. Keep working hard. GO STORM!!