Nov 27, 2011 | Dan Culbert | 321 views
Shorthanded crew drops 2-0 decision to St.Thomas
The CRS- Contractors Rental Supply 99ers traveled to St.Thomas on Sunday to face the 10-1-2 Stars for the first time this season. To further complicate things, the team was short 4 players and with AP players unavailable had to face a tough squad low on manpower.
Fatigue certainly would factor into this game, but the strong goaltending of Ben Beechey kept the 99ers in the game right to the end giving them a chance to try and steal a point. St. Thomas is a big fast team and they made the most of their 17 skaters to Brantford's 13 enroute to the win.
Brantford going with only 7 forwards and even one of those on the limp, hung in the game due to great goaltending and a sound effort from the entire defensive corp. The Stars did open the scoring fairly early, when Brantford broke down on the forecheck allowing all 3 forwards to be trapped and giving up a 3 on 2 leading to a goal at the 11:21 mark of the first. The team settled down and played a sound game with the Defense constantly stepping up to make big plays and allowing the team chances on the counter attack. Beechey made many saves including two big stops to keep the score at 1-0 as the 99ers were unable to sustain any real pressure on the Stars net.
In the the teams traded powerplays with St. Thomas having an extended 5 on 3 where Beechey stood tall several times to hold the deficit to 1. The 99er then had a 5 on 3 of their own about 5 minutes later, but this was reduced to a 4 on 3 with a questionable call only 20 seconds later. Brantford had good pressure but failed to score the equalizer.
The story was much the same in the 3rd as Brantford gave the Stars 3 more power play opportunities and they were finally able to connect on one and extend the lead to 2-0 at the 13:23 mark of the period. The 99ers found some late energy and although they were unable to score, Andrew Schunk had two great chances from the right side joining the rush from his defensive position. The CRS Midgets then pulled the goalie at the end but were unable to find the net and break the shutout falling to 3-8-2 while St. Thomas improved to 11-1-2. The 99ers now have a week off before traveling to London to take on the Oakridge Aeros on the 4th.
A tip of the hat to the entire team, and acknowledgement to the rest of the defensive unit Mitch McIsaac, Scott Smid, RJ Huszcoz, Jake Ferriera, and Brent Smolarz for a gutsy effort.