Playing back to back nights against teams that you gauge your program against has it challenges, throw in the fact both games being away and having to play shorthanded due to injury and suspension and the Midland Dow/Mt. Pleasant conference game on Wednesday night seemed to leave no question as to the outcome.
However................there is a reason the games are played!
The Oilers rolled in to Midland, still reeling from last nights tough loss to Big Rapids at Ferris. The boys played as if they had everything riding on one game and at the end of the night would enjoy the short bus ride back to Mt. Pleasant.
The first period was completely dominated by Dow as they out shot Mt. Pleasant 12-0, but strong goal tending and a good penalty kill held Dow off the scoreboard allowed the Oilers to get in to the locker room and regroup.
The second period would prove the deciding factor as Mt. Pleasant answered Dow's quick goal and subsequent 1-0 lead with two of its own by Junior Nick Coscarelly and Senior Eric DeLorenzo. Assists were handed to Dan Pulver & Coscarelly and the Oilers headed in to the third carrying a one goal lead against their conference rivals.
Strong goaltending and defensive play was once again the form as Dow out shot Mt. Pleasant 13-1, with the lone Oiler shot resulting in a unassisted goal by Danny Pulver, which gave mt. Pleasant a 3-1 lead with ten minutes to play in the period. The Oilers played sound positional hockey, allowed a lone goal with 3:45 left in the game, then really buckled down and controlled the flow the last three minutes of the game earning a much needed conference win.
Freshman goaltender Nick Burkholder allowed two goals on 39 shots and was able to help preserve the win for the Oilers, now 6-9 and will face Swan Valley on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment