Jan 02, 2016 | Steve Fogarty | 747 views
New Year, New Offense
The girls kicked off the new year with a road game to Woolwich to take on the Wild. With key players unavailable, some of the girls were asked to step out of their comfort zone and take on new positions.
Although strong defensively, the forwards came out nursing the turkey hangover and were unable to push the pace as much as they can. Ironically it was three defencemen that got the Stangs on the board first. Playing centre for the first time, the Mighty Lauren picked up the puck along the wall in the Wild zone and dropped it back to Jennie on the point. Using great hockey sense, instead of throwing it back into traffic, Jennie made a sweet D to D pass over to the Ferg. Making no mistakes with it, Ferg buried the puck and scored her first of the year and the Mustangs first of 2016.
The road team held a 1-0 lead into the second period. That was until the Mighty Lauren struck with her first of the year as a result of a strong forcheck and powering past the Wild defence. The 2-0 score would hold until 2 minutes to go in the second when the Wild tucked in a one timer to cut the lead to 2-1. Feeding off their first goal, the Wild pressed and seconds later came in on a breakaway. Cool as Chuck Norris in a snow fort, Texas Ranger kicked out the right leg turning the shot aside. With that save and an Ally The Great goal with 14 seconds to go, the Mustangs started the final period with a 3-1 lead.
The Wild opened up the scoring early in the third to cut the lead to one, but that was as close as they would get. Less than a minute later, with Mrs. T and Willie doing the heavy lifting in the corner, Mi was the recipient of a pass in the slot that she quickly put into the cage. The Wild pulled the goalie at the end but it was the Ferg striking again for her second of the game into the empty net. With the Wild tender back in, the Minion line wanted to join in the action as well. With a scramble in front, Rowdy Fogarty scored her first of the year on a back hand to the far side to cap off the scoring and a 6-2 Mustangs win.
Player of the game honors were a tough one to select this game as so many girls stepped up. All four D (Ferg, Jennie, Pinz & Erika) pushed themselves all game playing short staffed. In the end, it was the Mighty Lauren who picked up the honors. Playing her first game ever at centre, scoring her first goal of the year and then being rewarded by double shifting taking a turn at D, she did everthying the coaches asked and did it well.
A big shout out to Deuce as she made her return to game action, great to see her back in the Purple.