CHRIS UHLIG
With a new opponent in the semi finals for the Bogart Cup also arrived new challenges for the Bears to overcome.
Fightday night saw the team face the Cornwall Colts in the first game of the second round on home ice. The 825 attendees quickly noticed that there was no love lost between the two teams. But before the game got underway, the Chimo Choir delighted everyone with a rendition of the National Anthem.
Shaymus Stevenson scored the only goal of the first period at 15:38. Trevor Faucher and Jack Paquette assisted on it.
The lone goal of the second period was by Cornwall’s Bradley Fraser, making quick use of a power play advantage just 40 seconds in to even the score board. While the period was dominated by the Bears, they were unlucky to sink in any goals. Worse, one contested “score” did not get counted after deliberation of the referees, even though many claimed that it went in, and the game had all the hallmarks of potentially turning into a stolen game for the Bears.
Much remained the same during the third period until Trevor Faucher broke the stalemate with a goal at 15:43, assisted by Lucas Culhane and Matthew Herb.
The Bears took the 2:1 win, but it was not an easy one and this series could become a tough one for the team.
First Star of the evening went to Trevor Faucher for the game winning goal and one assist, Second Star was awarded to the Colts’ goalie Donald Hickey and our own goalie Dawson Labre earned Third Star.
As mentioned at the top of the article, the Bears will have to rethink some of their strategies with this new opponent, adapt to it, and find solutions for some old and some new obstacles if they want to get to the finals. As alway the team owned the shots on the net 32 to 21, but the players still displayed considerable problems with their accuracy, even one on one chances with the goalie were largely hit or miss. Then there are the penalties. Cornwall certainly drove the point home that they will make use of their powerplay advantages. A tactic that’s usually only reserved in European soccer games, namely attempting fake fouls and dives to get their opponent into the penalty box, also seemed to have appeared on the ice. While this is of course strictly speculative, the game saw a few suspicious instances. Not often seen unless as last ditch effort during regular season games was Cornwall’s swapping out their goalie for another player in the middle of the game to gain an advantage. As can be seen, the Bears have a tough road ahead.
The next game on home ice will be Tuesday.
UPDATE: The Bears also finished the second game of the series Sunday afternoon at the Ed Lumley Arena in Cornwall in their favour with a 2:1 win, practically mirroring the Friday game. Travis Ouellette scored first at 11:50 in the first period, Cornwell caught up at 3:23 in the second period with a goal by Nathan Garnier, and Matthew martin-Gaudreault finally secured the win for the Bears late in the third period at 15:45.
