The Hockey Hound
Friday night the Tumbler Ridge Arena was the site an exhibition game that saw the Tumbler Ridge Bantam raptors take on the North East BC Bantam Predators.
The NEBC Predators are an all female team based out of Fort St John that selects the top girls at that age group from across the entire Northeast BC area. The area includes Fort St John, Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Tumbler Ridge, Taylor, Ft Nelson, Clearview and all places in between. Goal tender Sierra Eagles is the lone Tumbler Ridge girl who was selected to that team. She decided to play for her home town Raptors as she is their only goalie, while the Predators had another Goalie in the person of Michelle Querin.
Makena Lloyd-Howe is also in the Predators organization, playing in the pee wee division. She was called up by the Bantams to participate in the game.
The first period was fairly tight with both teams trading chances and at the end had the Raptors ahead 3-1 with two goals from Landon MacEachern and one from Jayden McQueen. The lone marker for the Predators came from an explosive end to end rush from Maria Ayre who broke in down the right side and powered her way through the two Raptor defensemen and roofed one glove side on a sprawled out Eagles.
In the second period the relentless forecheck by the Raptors, and two unfortunate penalties by the Predators caused the game to slip out of the Predators grasp with the home town raptors racking up four more goals. Two of these came from Liam Glosser, one of which was on a nice feed from hard working underage Makena Lloyd-Howe who battled off two defenders in the corner to centre a nice backhand pass to the waiting Glosser.
Logan Lloyd-Howe would also light the lamp with a strong snap shot that caught the Predators goalie off guard. Matthew Colbourne topped of the scoring with a slick spin-o-Rama rocket from the right face off dot that found its way underneath the unsuspecting Predators goalie.
The third period continued to be under the Raptors control when Makena Lloyd-Howe opened the scoring at the 17:39 mark. Lloyd-Howe cut down the wing on the left side and made a nice tight turn in the corner that resulted in an explosive burst off the half wall that culminated in a laser wrist shot into the top right corner of the net. That tally gave Lloyd-Howe a team leading four points (one goal and three assists) for the game.
The Predators answered back with another end to end Rush from Maria Ayre on a slick breakout pass from Ireland Hunt for her second assist of the game. The raptors tallest player, 6’2 Kole MacNeil, also found the net twice in the third period. MacNeil second goal was a beauty that saw him deke and twist and turn through four Predator players before releasing a wicked snap shot that the predators goalie never even seen coming.
MacNeil, who is not accustom to scoring, (this was only his third goal this year) was thrilled with his goal and his goal celebration culminated with a full on yard sale crash into the end boards. “You know it’s great to see a kid who’s put in so much effort to improve be absolutely thrilled when all, that hard work pays off with a couple of goals,” said coach Will Howe.
‘’MacNeil is always looking for extra ice times and shot thousands of pucks over the summer, and roller bladed a ton, all in an effort to improve his game. It really shows this year and I’m excited for him.
Howe continued. “This was an excellent opportunity for all the girls in the TR Minor Hockey organization to see what the Predators organization is, and how they are building opportunities for girls in the north to continue to advanced their careers. The Preds are a great organization with some top notch coaching and a board of deeply committed volunteers. They were an absolute pleasure to have here in town and we look forward to playing them again in the near future.’’
