B
The Hockey Hound
The Tumbler Ridge Bantam Raptors hit the highway this past weekend for a three game road trip with hopes that a perfect performance might catapult them into first place.
The Raptors were sitting in second place in the standings with 12 points: six wins and one loss. The way the schedule lined up this year the Raptors hadn’t played nearly the number of games that the rest of the league had played. As a result, the Bantam team has a heavily weighted amount of games during the second half after Christmas.
Friday night saw the Raptors visiting the Dawson Creek Canucks for their third time this season. The Raptors had two decisive wins over DC earlier in the season, taking them 5–2 and 8–2. DC was third in points with 11, one back of the Raptors for second place.
The team started out in the right frame of mind before the game had even started, as Raptors player Kole MacNeil, slid gracefully out on to the ice during warmup with his skate guards on. After dazed-deer-on-a-frozen-lake MacNeil got his guards off and the kids had a good chuckle, they were ready to head into action.
The first period was incredibly tight with each team trading chances in a fast paced action. Matthew Colbourne opened the scoring for the Raptors with 5:15 to go in the first with a slick deflection on a point shot from Austin Bradley on a feed from peewee call-up player Trey Stokes. DC responded with a goal of their own with a point shot from Zane Mock, that made its way into the net through a screen of bodies.
The second period saw a more hungry Canuck team that outshot the Raptors 12–8, but the Raptors goaltender Sierra Eagles shut the door to all of the Canucks attempts.
The Raptors managed to pull ahead with a nice feed from 6’2 D-man Kole MacNeil to Liam Glosser who burst down the wing and beat the goaltender with a nice wrist shot from just outside the slot.
The third period saw some excellent back and forth chances for both teams, but at the 9:09 mark the Raptors found the insurance goal they were looking for on a nice bar down snap shot from Logan Lloyd-Howe. D-man, Kyra Bertrand broke up a play inside the DC blue line and winger Devin Trudel picked up the loose puck to feed Lloyd-Howe on his tally. Perhaps in a show of appreciation, 15 seconds later Lloyd-Howe returned the favor setting up Trudel for a quick shovel goal down in front of the DC net.
The Raptors ended up winning 4–1 and the Canucks just couldn’t get back in the game and found themselves in some serious penalty trouble, resulting in one of DCs players being ejected from the game.
“Our kids just wanted it tonight,” said coach Will Howe. “Our tendy, Sierra Eagles stood on her head when called upon, our D kept pucks deep and our forward back-checked hard. We’re a tough team to play against when all our kids come to play. I was very happy with the effort”.
Saturday afternoon The Raptors were up against the GP3 Knights. The Raptors didn’t waste any time coming out and showing their dominance over the Knights. TR outshot the Knights 16–6 in the first period and ended up with three goals for their efforts. Two by Lloyd-Howe, both set up by winger Landon MacEachern, who also added a goal of his own in the first.
The second period the Knights came out with something to prove and scored their first goal less than two minutes into the period with a nice wrist shot from Evan Melezko from Riley Kay and Reese Hicks.
Three minutes after that the Raptors struck back with Lloyd-Howe completing the hat trick on a nice three way passing play from MacEachern and Stokes. As the period wound down, MacEachern picked up his second of the night with a great single effort end to ender beauty backhand. Stokes would also add another assist on a nice feed in front of the net to winger Jaden McQueen.
The Third period saw MacEachern net his third goal of the day on another rush up the wing. At this point the Raptors let their foot off the gas for a bit and the Knights scored two quick ones from Micah Schroeder and Josh Galla. A smart defensive play deep in the Raptors end by Kenzie Mercredi helped spring Trudel who in turn flipped a nice pass over to Lloyd-Howe who netted his fourth of the day. MacEachern would also add his fourth and McQueen would add his second as the Raptors put the pedal to the metal again and finished with a decisive 10-3 win.
Coach Howe had this to say after the game. ‘’Although our forwards stole the show on the score sheet, it was really thanks to our defense holding the blue line and helping us create additional chances by stepping up. Bellows, Mercredi and Bradley had excellent games, all of them defended hard and stepped up at the right times. Bertrand and MacNeil made the right choices with the pucks and executing what was working on in practice. It makes it a lot easier on our short bench when the D get involved on the forecheck and get pucks deep”. The Raptors had slipped into first place with the win, but with a Saturday night win by GP2, the Raptors had slipped back to second by the time their heads hit the pillows that night at the hotel.
Sunday Afternoon had the Raptors facing the GP1 Knights at the big house in the Revolution place arena, formally known as the Crystal Centre. The team was very excited to play in the same arena where the GP Junior A Storm play and the first period showed that. Right from the Puck drop the Raptors controlled the puck, play and game.
MacEachern was a man on a mission and racked up three goals in under three minutes during the first six minutes of play. MacEachern would go on to add two more goals and add three assists for an eight point afternoon. Not to be outdone, line mate Logan Lloyd-Howe had four goals and three helpers, and the third musketeer on that line Trudel had a goal and three assists.
The Raptors first line of McQueen, Glosser and Stokes combined for the remaining four goals. One goal of particular note was the beauty slot wrister by Stokes, set up by a slick behind the net pass from McQueen. ‘’Any time you see a first year Peewee come up and join the Bantams and pot a slick goal like he had, and add two beauty set up assists, it’s really something else to watch” Coach Howe said of his young player.
The Raptors finished the game with a convincing 14–1 win, sliding into first place in the league with 18 points with a nine and one record. ‘’We had a goal to go undefeated this weekend. The kids are buying into the system and are playing for themselves, the team and the town. They are a very focused, positive, great group of kids. I’ve coached many of these 13–14 year old kids for the past ten years and they’ve decided as a group this year they want the banner. We’ve been very close in previous years, twice in the final banner game and losing both in overtime or the shoot-out. This group is determined not to let that happen this year. They want it bad and are putting in the hard work to get there,” Howe said of his team.
The Tumbler Ridge Bantam Raptors return to TR Friday night at 6pm for an exhibition game against the all-girls North East BC Predators regional team. The Raptors goalie Sierra Eagles plays for the NEBC Predators when she’s not in the pipes for her home town Raptors. Come on down to the rink and watch your home team Raptors battle the best female Bantams in the north of the province.
The Raptors send a special thanks out to their team sponsor Freshmart.
