A solid performance by
Creemore goaltender Sawyer Lammle, coupled with what may have been a trace of
overconfidence, was the Owen Sound Canadian Tire Jr. Attack Tykes’ downfall as
they dropped a 4-2 road decision to the Novice Valley Hawks on Sunday.
Lammle, who the Jr. Attack were facing for the first time this season, denied several quality Owen Sound scoring chances in the early going which appeared to provide his Valley Hawks with momentum from the get-go.
“Their goalie made some big saves,” said Jr. Attack head coach Rick Corbett. “Today’s loss was a combination of bad bounces and fantastic goaltending by the opposition.”
Creemore, losers of their first 10 games this season, scored twice in the opening frame, once in the second and then added a season game-high fourth marker early in the third period.
“Creemore was hungry for their first win of the year and capitalized on almost every opportunity,” said Corbett.
Scoring in the loss for Owen Sound were Maddox Burgess and Nolan Edmonstone while Jaren Pirie chipped in with one assist. Forward Percey Roney, who played a strong two-way game, earned Hardest Working Player of the Game honours.
“We may have been a little overconfident after beating them twice at home and we came out a bit sloppy,” said Corbett, whose Tykes last month downed Creemore 4-1 and then won again on Friday by a score of 3-0 in the first game of this home-and-home series.
Trailing 4-0 with less than five minutes to play, however, the Tykes valiantly demonstrated there’s no quit in their game.
Burgess finally solved the stingy Lammle with 4:39 remaining in the contest when he split a pair of defencemen, broke in alone and made no mistake to notch his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
The Tykes then quickly cut their deficit to two when Pirie found a driving to the net Edmonstone who rifled a wrist shot over the outstretched right pad of the Creemore netminder.
“We turned it on and dominated the second half of the third period to make it closer but unfortunately we ran out of time,” said Corbett. “We didn’t give up so the kids can be proud of their effort in the third period.”
The Tykes (3-6) return to action this Friday when they play host to the Grand Valley Twisters (2-5-1) at the Bayshore Community Centre. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.