The Midget Rep regular season began at home on Tuesday when the Mitchell Meteors came to town.
The Cycs came out flying and were rewarded with a goal from Ben Verkley early in the first, assisted by Conner Dewar. Verkley bent the mesh again early in the second, unassisted. Luke Binning added to the lead midway through the second with some nice passing from his line mates, Travis Bender and Connor Johnson. This same line gave the team a four goal lead early in the third, this time on a nice top corner wrister from Bender.
The Meteors tried to battle back and closed the gap with two goals in the third, but that was all the solid goaltending and strong defense would allow them.
Bender once again found the top shelf , this time with assists going to Ryan Goetz and Matt McCracken.
Late in the third, Johnson picked-up a pass from Dewar, split the D with some nice, shifty moves and fed the puck to Justin Miller who was moving in from the point. Miller found the back of the net to seal the game with a 6 – 2 victory. Ben Nelson earned the win between the pipes.
The Goderich Sailors came to town on Sunday night for game two of the regular season. Once again, the Cycs took an early lead in the first period on a goal from Dewar, assisted by Goetz and Clark Askin. The Sailors would tie it up before the end of the first.
The home team found themselves behind by two before the first minute of the second period had ended. The Sailors definitely had the momentum in their favour and managed to put the Cycs down by three before Verkley broke through the defense and snuck in all alone from the blue line and put one over the goalie’s shoulder. Late in the second, Dewar would get his second of the game from Matt Wilkans and Jordan Linstead. The Sailors would put one more marker on the scoreboard to end the second with a six to three lead.
The boys hit the ice hard after the break and came out with some aggressive forechecking. Binning lit the lamp early in the third, assisted by Cody Matheson and Miller. The third period was a back and forth battle, but no more scoring by either side until the Cycs pulled their goalie on a power play to make it a six on four. Binning buried the biscuit for his second of the night, assisted by Matheson, with just 1:25 left on the clock.
The Cycs showed some serious ‘never give up’ attitude and battled hard in the last minute of the game, but could not beat the Sailors netminder. The Cycs lost the game by a score of six to five. Goaltending duties were split by Jesse Nethercott and Nelson.
Next game action takes place in Mitchell this Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. and back at home next Sunday at 8:30 p.m. vs. the Mildmay Monarchs.