Nov 04, 2013 | Pete Verbeek | 1252 views
The Start of Things to Come
The Atom LL Black team is already many practices and five games into their regular season. It is amazing to see the improvement in the team already. The team has a record of 2 wins, 2 losses and a tie in those first 5 games with almost everyone hitting the scoresheet once and those that haven't have played terrific defensively contributing to our success. But more importantly, there has been significant improvement in the skill level and positional play of all our players.
The season started with a game against the other Listowel LL team. It was a hard fought battle but we managed to come out on top with a 3-1 victory. Kaleb played a good game in net. Ty got the scoring started in the second with Justin scoring 2 goals in the 3rd.
Game #2 was against a Mount Forest team with a good little goalie and a few great skaters. We managed to carry a 2 goal lead into the 3rd on goals from Justin and Hayden (first career goal) but couldn't hold on and had to settle for a 2-2 tie. The Mount Forest coaches praised our goalie (Ethan B) for his strong game between the pipes.
Games #3 and #4 were against the 2 Hanover teams. since they do not have an AE team we knew we would be in tough as they would have some skilled players on their squads. We managed to stay with both these teams for the most part of the games but in the end we came out on the wrong end of 6-2 and 6-4 losses. Justin and Austin scored in Game #3 while Ty netted 2, Justin scored 1 and Collin (first career goal) scored in Game #4.
Game #5 was a rematch with Mount Forest. The kids were ready to play in this one. The team played a great positional game and shut down the opposition best players with some strong defense and cruised to a well earned 8-1 win. Justin had the hat-trick, Ty added 2 and single goals came from Collin, Jayannth and Ethan B (also a career first).
We have been giving some players the opportunity to play forward and defense and will continue to do so throughout the year. The positional play is much improved since the beginning of the season so we do not want to mix it up too much. Hopefully everyone can keep attending the very beneficial skill development sessions and all practices so we can build on what we have started. This is a great group of kids and when they stay focused on what we are doing and trying to teach them, the improvements will continue to come.
Thanks,
The Coaching Staff