Minor PeeWee's Battle 1st Place Burlington Eagles, News, PeeWee Minor, 2013-14 (Owen Sound Minor Hockey Group)

This Team is part of the 2013-14 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Dec 24, 2013 | mandenon | 1888 views
Minor PeeWee's Battle 1st Place Burlington Eagles
The Garb & Gear Minor Peewee's hosted the high-flying Burlington Eagles at the Julie MacArthur Rec Centre on Sunday, December 15th, with high hopes of grounding their heated rivals and ending the Eagles 7-game winning streak that had helped them soar into 1st place in the Tri-County league standings.

The two top-10 OMHA teams are quickly forming a very heated rivalry between each other. The similarly skilled teams have not been able to distance themselves from each other in their two games this season by more than a two-goal spread. This game was no different with Burlington striking twice in the first period to take a 2-0 lead into the second. 

The between periods pep talk by ever calm Assistant Coach Ken Williams must have gotten through to his foot soldiers as the Attack came out ready to battle. The home squad started winning races to loose pucks and played with more urgency. It was that kind of play that resulted in the Attack's first goal. Gavin Downs out-raced and out-muscled Burlington's big stalwart captain on defence and found Nick Mandeno out front, who fired home the shot short-side to cut the Burlington lead in half, 7:02 into the 2nd.
 
As has been customary all season long, Head Coach Nick MacArthur delivered the 2nd between periods speech and implored his troops to continue winning the battles in the corners and on the face-off dots. Like a well-oiled machine, the Attack heeded the message. With a face off in the Eagles zone, Downs once again was the catalyst, winning the draw back towards defenseman Reid Thomson. Thomson, pressured by the Eagles winger, tried to poke the puck down low but the Eagles winger arrived at the same time and the puck squirted towards Thomson's D-partner and captain, Joseph Pringle. Pringle loaded up his wrister and fired the disc high. His shot hit a Burlington defender in the head and redirected off the crossbar and down into the net, knotting the battle at 2, 4:33 into the final frame. The home side traded chance after chance with the visitor's, but were stymied by the Eagles goaltender, when finally, Burlington's captain decided to shoulder the burden and launched an end-to-end rush that resulted in the winning goal with 3:41 to go, thus increasing their winning streak to 8 games. The loss was a blow to the Attack's chances of catching the top placed team with just 4 games remaining before playoffs. A great effort by the home squad should give them confidence as they close out their schedule with games against Oakville, Caledon, and a home and home against arch-nemesis New Hamburg. Go Attack Go!!

Submitted by George Condy

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