Jan 18, 2015 | bshaw | 443 views
Storm Start Strong Vs. St. Thomas
The Atom AE Storm began their playdowns this weekend with back to back wins vs. the St. Thomas Stars.
Continuing their hot play of late, the Storm surged into the playdowns and took the first 4 points of the 6 point series vs. the St. Thomas Stars.
Friday January 16 @ Harrow
Wanting to capitalize on home ice advantage, the Storm pressed hard the opening shift and were rewarded when Mikayla buried a cross ice pass to put us up 1-0. The rest of the first period featured strong positional play and good forechecking by the Storm which led to most of the play being in the offensive zone. The period ended 1-1 after St. Thomas scored a late powerplay goal. The second period saw the Storm continue their possession dominance and goals by Reilly then Troy put us up 3-1. Ahhh the dreaded 2 goal lead, the lead hated by hockey coaches around the world. Here's another example why, St. Thomas scored a late goal in the second and an early goal in the third to tie the game up and swing momentum in their favour. Refusing to fold, the Storm got back to their forechcking ways and offensive zone prowness leading to the game winning goal by Keegan.
Final Score - Storm wins 4-3
Saturday January 17@ St. Thomas
Less than 24 hours later, the Storm rolled 200 km down the 401 for game 2 of the series. The Coaches warned of a difficult game ahead as St. Thomas would not want to lose on their home rink and be down 4 points in the series.
Teagan raised the bar on toughness by pulling out a tooth during warm ups and then spitting out a pool of blood after gargling with water. ( She didn't miss a shift - GAME ON! )
In yet another game which featured hard skating and strong forechecking, the Storm opened the scoring in the first period when Keegan won a puck battle at the blue line, skated in alone and beat the goalie with a nice deke.
The second period saw some close checking and quality goaltending with Tommy sticking out the left pad to stone a St. Thomas breakaway. It was gut check time heading into the 3rd period with the 1-0 lead. The game continued to be a see-saw battle with St. Thomas giving it their all in an effort to tie up the game. The final minutes saw another St. Thomas breakaway thwarted by Tommy as well as a cat like save on a deflection in front of the net to preserve the win and the shutout.
Final score - Storm wins 1-0
Great start to the series. Go Storm Go !!