Chiefs Battling Hard In OMHA Final
Derrick Van Every of the Ridgetown-Blenheim Chiefs battles a Drayton player in game 1 of the OMHA finals – Photo by Kelsey Vermeersch
The Chiefs came out flying and scored on the first shift of the game as Robert Towsley slipped the puck in on a nice feed from Kurt Beecroft, with Derrick Van Every collecting the other assist. Unfortunately for the Ridgetown-Blenheim Chiefs, it was all downhill from there in game one. The Drayton team scored eight times in the game, winning by an 8-5 final. Also scoring for the Chiefs were Kurt Beecroft with two, and Derrick Van Every and Drew Swiss with singles.
According to the Chiefs, they weren’t happy with their game plan Saturday, and looked to make adjustments heading into Sunday’s game two.
“Saturday the game plan executed wasn’t appropriate for this team and it showed,” said assistant captain Derrick Van Every.
“I think Saturday night we chose the wrong strategy and they made the most of their opportunities,” added Chiefs captain Chad Phillips. “In the third period we came out strong but it wasn’t enough.”
Game two went Sunday in Drayton. The Drayton Defenders put the pressure on the Chiefs early, but both teams played a strong defensive opening frame, ending the period knotted at 0-0. Following a Drayton goal in the secondm Robert Towsley scored on a break away pass from Alex Gardniner to tie the game at 1-1. With the game tied at the end of regulation, the game went into overtime, but ended tied 1-1 with Chiefs netminder Brandan Joyce stopped 41 of 42 shots to keep the Chiefs in the game.
“Joyce played really well for us,” said Van Every of his goaltender. “Positive note from this weekend is we got to see what Drayton was all about and now know we can beat these guys. Just have to bare down, get pucks to the net and make the most of our opportunities.”
Matt Fluery, who scored in the weekend’s opening game agreed that with hard work, chances, and goals will come.
“We are a fast paced hockey team that gets a lot of scoring chances,” said Fluery. So we’re just going to have to keep working hard and the results will come.”
Game three is this coming Sunday at 7pm in Ridgetown, where the Chiefs have been drawing in large crowds. According to Phillips, if the Ridgetown-Blenheim Chiefs continue to improve as they did last weekend, they’ll have a shot at winning an OMHA title.
“We both played great games and had lots of opportunities, but we just couldn’t pull off the win. If we keep playing like we canm I don’t believe we will have a problem winning the series.”