The North Island Bantam Eagles continue to find ways to defeat their opposition when it matters the most.
The Eagles were scheduled to play two games down island on the weekend, with the first being against the very tough Tier 2 Victoria Admirals.
After finding themselves down 2-0 within the first minute (goals scored by Cameron Lott and Brixton Mason, assists going to Shunkichi Yamamoto x2, Kaari Patel and Jacob Bernardo), the Eagles finally managed to respond with a goal of their own with 2:35 left on the clock, courtesy of Jack Barrett, assist on the play going to Zach Spafford.
Spafford would then score back to back goals in the second at 18:50 and 10:34 to make it 3-2 for the Eagles, assists going to captain William Grant, Kale Hunt x2, and Barrett.
The Admirals would tie things up at 9:13 with a goal from Mason, assisted by Patel and Alejandro Snead, but that was pretty much it for them after that, as the Eagles blew the game wide open in the third.
Landon Turgeon scored twice at 17:57 and 14:07 (first goal assisted by Tye Morash), Hunt put the puck in the net at 5:57 (assisted by Garrett Beek), and then Grant finished things off with a goal at 1:52.
The Admirals did put two pucks in the net in the third thanks to Michael Tang and Mason (assists going to Anson Spiers, Luca Porter, Westhaver, and Lott), but it wasn’t enough as the Eagles skated away with a close 7-5 victory.
“Throughout the season we have met different challenges,” stated head coach Glenn Moore.
“We have dealt with issues in our defensive zone and injuries and undisciplined penalties. Over the last weekend our new issue became slow starts to games.”
Moore noted that “as a coaching staff, we talk about getting a good jump out of the gate but we ended up chasing the game early when we were down 2-0 within the first minute. And if this group is going to be successful it’s something we need to tidy up.”
The Eagles had a game the next day against the Kerry Park Islanders, and this one started out similar, with the Islanders scoring early in the first period thanks to Samuel Huck (assist going to Matthew Meier).
The Eagles took over in the second period, scoring four goals thanks to Spafford, Turgeon, Grant, and Hunt (assists going to Barrett, Adam Russell, Spafford and Grant), while the Islanders only put the puck in the net once thanks to Adyn Yuill.
The third period featured more of the same, as the Eagles scored two more goals thanks to Barrett and Spafford (assists going to Spafford and Barrett), to finish things off with a big 6-2 victory.
Moore noted that while it’s frustrating when the team gets out to a slow start, battling adversity “is something we can draw on later in the season.”
The Eagles are currently sitting in first place in the Tier 2 division with an 11-1 record with 60 goals for and only 29 goals against. They have two road games left to play.
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