Landon Hockey 5 St. Mary’s Ryken 1 (12.01.2017)

The Knights took it to the Bears last season and while they have lost to St. Johns and Georgetown Prep, both were scores signaling SMR gave their opponents a game.

The Bears took the ice with energy and focus. They moved the puck, skated hard, drove to the goal, frustrated their opponents’ O with smart stickchecks, interrupted the Knights movement with good use of the body and had a wall behind them called Ty Morton (15 saves on 16 shots).

The home team ignited quickly. Drew Wellington roofed a shot from a tough angle @ 00:41 expired. Forty-nine seconds later, as his linemates headed to the bench for a shift change, Drew forechecked a Knight and beat the opposing goalie on a backhand shot @ 13:20 remaining.

The next line continued the attack and a puck moved from Joey Graham to Jake Davidson and onto Ryan Giles’ stick for goal #3 @ 12:54.

All three lines were on the top of their skates—moving to a loose puck, cutting off a Knight from an advantage and maintaining possession. This is a very deep Bear squad and the senior leadership has made it clear that teamwork is the primary rule of these 18 skaters. It is early in the season for such coordination is showing.

The next goal started as a scrum near the SMR crease, Jake was able to move the puck back to Ethan Weinstein who buried the puck @ 9:30.

The remainder of the 1^st trimester was still primarily Bear controlled. For the first 15 minutes, Landon put 11 shots on goal and Ty had 5 saves.

END OF THE 1^ST PERIOD BEARS 4 KNIGHTS 0

This stanza started mush as the first. This time Owen Cannon fed Will Jarrett @ 14:13. The score occurred 13 seconds after a Bear penalty box occupant was released.

The fire, which helped create the 5 goals, was not as intense over the last 30 minutes. The Knights upped their level of intensity. An SMR forward broke away and swooped in on Ty for the sole visitors’ goal.

Over the middle period, Landon put 11 SOGs and Ty made 5 saves.

END OF THE 2^nd PERIOD BEARS 5 KNIGHTS 1

The final trimester was devoid of scoring. The ice had been resurfaced and the visitors were reenergized. The Bears were able to frustrate their opponents, but Landon’s less-than-full throttle play was insufficient to score.

Over the middle period, Landon put 6 SOGs and Ty made 5 saves.

END OF THE GAME BEARS 5 KNIGHTS 1

NEXT GAME 12/6 at 4:20pm AGAINST 5-0 WINSTON CHURCHILL @ THE BEARS DEN