Mar 26, 2015 | pwtcblack | 3072 views
One For All And All For One. The Black Flags Win The Tricounty League Title With A 3-2 Shoot Out Win Over West Lorne To Sweep
The Mooretown Jr. Flags Black once again found the hardest
way possible to win the Tricounty Championship with a 3-2 win over West Lorne
on the road.
The Mooretown Jr. Flags are the Champs. Needing a shoot-out to bring home the Tricounty Banner. If anyone followed the team all season tight games became their specialty. In the 40 games the team played this season they had 15 one goal games and 6 ties. Another crazy statistic was through the league regular season and playoffs the Black Flags lost just one game on the road. They went 12-1-2 in 15 Tricounty games where they were the visitors. So after winning game one on home ice it looked like Mooretown was in good shape heading for two chances to win the title on the road. Mooretown would once again be missing Braeden Hunt on vacation and Assistant coach/Trainer Brad Nicholson who was on a business trip to the Red Wings game in Detroit. West Lorne did exactly what was to be expected. They game out of the gate hard and pinned Mooretown in the defensive zone shifts at a time. West Lorne came to play and Mooretown struggled to match their pace. Colin Gladwish would be called upon to keep the Black Flags in the game. The first period was fast paced and Mooretown would manage just one shot on goal in the first while West Lorne would get 5 on net but had many “just” misses but the game would remain scoreless after 1. Ryan Nicholson would take a penalty late in the first that would carry over into the second. Mooretown would kill off the penalty but still couldn’t seem to find a way to gain forward momentum while West Lorne continued to pressure. Mooretown would get their first power play with 7:07 left in the second but were unable to make it work. West Lorne grabbed the momentum back off the penalty kill and broke the scoreless tie as a player cut through the defense and banged home his own rebound to make it 1-0 Comets with 4:27 left in the second. Mooretown would be given a 4 minute power play with 3:03 left in the second but could score before the period ended. West Lorne would out shoot Mooretown 9-3 in the second. The third would start with Mooretown on the power play and Devin Dewhirst who was up on forward again would tie the game on a gorgeous back hand that went top corner. Dallas Mesko and Keeley McKegan would get the assists on the goal. Mooretown had finally found their legs as the game started to even out. Just under 2 minutes later Maddie Mesko would take a tripping penalty. But, the penalty killers would get the job done again keeping the West Lorne attack at bay. Maddie would head back to the box again this time for interference less than 2 minutes later and West Lorne would still be unable to solve the penalty kill of Mooretown. The teams would trade chances as the period went on. Devin Dewhirst would get tangled up with a West Lorne player and a few punches were thrown. Devin would get 4 for head contact but the West Lorne player would also get 4 and an additional 2 for roughing. The Black Flags would seize the opportunity and Lucas Rodey would give Mooretown their first lead as he fired one home from close in with assists to Ryan Nicholson and MacKenzie Lumley with just 3:40 remaining in the third. The teams would return to 5 on 5 as Coach Gladwish called a time out to settle his troops in for the final 3:40. But West Lorne would bottle up the Jr. Flags and just 30 seconds later would tie the game at 2 as the puck ricocheted off of Gladwish’s stick and went between his legs. The remaining 3:10 would be intense but the refs would give West Lorne one more power play as Colton Williamson would get called for slashing with 1:15 remaining in the third. Mooretown would survive the last of the third a man down and the game would go to a 5 on 5 overtime for 5 minutes. Shots on goal in the third were 8-8. The Overtime would start with Mooretown still a man down for 45 seconds. They would kill off the penalty and neither team could find the back of the net for the entire 5 minutes meaning the game would be decided in a shoot-out. Shots on goal in the Overtime would favor West Lorne 3-1 for a game total of 25-13. I know there are a lot of questions about how the shooters were chosen for the shootout. All year long the coaching staff had preached team above the individual. But as the finals neared and the possibility of a shoot-out loomed the practice on Monday night featured a contest to see which three shooters would represent Mooretown should a game come down to it. 2 shootouts were used to decide the three players. Hannah MacNeil won the first shootout while Coltan Beauvais and Ryan Nicholson tied for the win in the second shoot out and that is how the decisions was made. West Lorne elected to go second in the shootout so it was Hannah MacNeil who would shoot first. Hannah was always very successful in shoot outs in practice and it appeared that a little luck would help her as well. As Hannah skated in the West Lorne goalie stumbled. Hannah made no mistake as she fired a bullet home to put Mooretown up 1-0. Next West Lorne would send their shooter. Colin Gladwish out waited the shooter and made a pad save. Coltan Beauvais would be next. Coltan flew down the ice at the West Lorne goalie who could not match his speed. Beauvais fired it home to put Mooretown up 2-0. One more save by Gladwish and the game was over. Colin did exactly that as the West Lorne shooter lost control and fired a weak one at Gladwish and the celebration began. The Black Flags were indeed the Peewee Champs. It was a win indicative of the team. They never gave up and found a way to win. A Team effort all the way to the end. All For One and One For All.