BANTAM FURY CAPTURES FIRST ZONE WIN

The Mason Home Bantam Fury finally picked up their first Zone 6 win against the Clarington Gaels, and it did not come without some great play at both ends of the floor and some great goaltending by Josh ONeill.

The game was a real battle from the start to the end, but the Fury must have heeded Coach Hough's statement of "playing with a chip on your shoulder" as the game was a real chippy affair with Clarington taking 23 minutes in minor penalties to the Fury's 6 minutes. Coach Hough was able to keep his players out of the box, as towards the end of the game, the Clarington team tried to take matters into their own hands with a couple of cheap shots to a few of the Fury players, but the boys would not bite, and came away with a 5-3 victory.

This line might get very old, but again, just over a minute into the game, the Fury found themselves down by one, as the Gaels took the opening draw, and before goalie ONeill had a chance to start to sweat, marched down the floor and put one behind the startled goalie. But, just over 2 minutes later, Craig Shier outran a Gael player down the floor and buried a shot to the low right corner past the keeper. The goal was unassisted, and knotted the game at 1-1. From this point on in the period, all the Gael shooters could do was try to find the holes on the Fury goalie, but ONeill responded by shutting the door and giving his team a chance to take the lead. The Fury did not let their goalie down, and responded with 2 goals within 1 minute to take the lead by a score of 3-1. The second goal for the Fury was scored by Riley Smith, unassisted and their third goal was scored by Craig Shier, with his second, assisted by Clint Harford. Both goalies kept the scorers at bay, until with just 11 seconds left to go in the period, Clarington scored to make the score 3-2 at the end of the 1st, in favour of the Fury.

The second period was mostly an end to end affair, with lots of shots, but both goalies equal to the task. The Gaels were without their regular goalie, so one of the players had to suit up, and did a very good job at holding the Fury at bay, while Fury goalie made many great saves from close range, to make for a very entertaining period. At the 10 minute mark, Craig Shier completed his hat trick, giving the Fury a short lived 4-2 lead, as just 4 minutes later, the Gaels snuck one in on the short side on ONeill, making the game 4-3 in the Fury's favour, with 15 minutes to go.

The third period almost got out of control, with many cheap shots to the heads of the Fury players, which resulted in Clarington taking 6 minor and 1 major penalty for some very silly play. The Fury however, could not take advantage of the many powerplays, some of them being 5 on 3 chances, as the Gaels did a great job penalty killing, and then when the Fury did get a chance to shoot, the Gael goalie was there to make the save. The game stayed close, with the Fury looking for the chance to get that one extra goal, and with just over 2 minutes remaining, they were rewarded. A long past down the floor, gave Pee Wee call up, Hayden Ryan and breakaway. Hayden was stopped on his first shot, but somehow found his rebound and buried it, making the final score of the game 5-3 in favour of the Fury.

Coach Hough was proud of the way the boys game to play, and outside of the missed chances on the powerplay, was very happy with the overall performance.

The Fury's next game is on Thursday, June 19 against their highway 7 rival, the Peterborough Lakers. The next home action for the Fury, is Tuesday, June 24, when they will host the Whitby Warriors in a double header at the Lindsay Rec Centre. The first game is set for 8:00pm.






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