Senior Ice Hockey

Saturday Night Hockey Returns to Mill Bay

There is something special about the electric atmosphere at Kerry Park Arena when both SLS and BCS battle in front of their fans. The game started on an incredibly exciting note with Shawnigan’s Brandon H. scoring a quick goal at the seventeen second mark. However, a quick response by Brentwood a mere 45 seconds later settled that this was going to be an incredible night of evenly matched hockey. End of first period score: 1:1.

SLS took the lead again in the second with a great go-ahead goal after Mitch M. emerged from the corner against two BCS players. He feathered a pass to the unmarked Max. C. who made no mistake and finished the play returning the lead to SLS. When playing BCS, any unmarked players are a real threat, and they began to display their offensive prowess by capitalizing on poor gap control on our defensive coverage. Giving them room to in our zone proved to be dangerous, and they scored two goals to close out the period, regaining the lead at 3-2. One exceptional play that would have tied the game at the end of the second was the blistering slap shot by Derek D. It passed the Brentwood goalie, rebounded off the crossbar, hit him in the back, then fell to the ice and slowly inched towards the goal line until the netminder fell backwards, smothering the puck in the process.

Coming onto the ice for the third and final period we knew the game would be decided within the next 20 minutes, and we had some work to do. In the meantime, both sets of fans were literally dancing in the stands in the intermissions and sustained the high-energy atmosphere that is characteristic of the showcase game. Despite a lot of pressure exerted in our opponents end, we couldn’t get the puck in the net before BCS did, and we now were down by two goals. Our team was resilient and determined, battling back to a score another goal by Max C. who jumped on a loose puck in front of the BCS net. Now we were battling both our opponents and the clock, and credit to Brentwood they played well in the final minutes to keep us off the scoreboard, and earn the 4-3 victory.

Our player of the game was Sean A. (who had a personalized cheer that captured his presence on the ice “Big Sean, Big Sean, Big Sean”). Special mention to our exceptional goalie Joel B. and to our captain Danny H. for their character and leadership. The entire team represented the school exceptionally well we were very proud of their tremendous compete level. We are very excited to build on this year’s growth and look forward to our rematch with Brentwood at the end of February in the Ross Cup Tournament.

At this moment, I thank the rest of the coaching staff, Mr. Tim Murdy, and Mr. Harry Benson for their contributions to the development of our athletes. Finally, I want to thank the team and our fans for making this game one of the best in recent history.

– Paul Morris, Coach

Photos by Stephen Lane