Dec 14, 2018 | dchernish | 562 views
Battle For First Place Ends In Draw
The Welland Telus Tigers nearly pulled off an upset against the Stoney Creek Warriors in Niagara District Peewee Doherty action on the road on Friday evening, settling instead for a satisfying 2-2 tie.
With their speed and an absolutely fantastic effort by all at both ends of the ice the Tigers were able to almost completely shut down the league's most potent offence, save for some bad luck while on the other hand Welland potted two fantastic goals of their own on superb passing plays.
Welland's powerplay was deadly going 2-for-2 on the night, with Eli Moormann converting an excellent setup from Kaleb Seguin and Carter Risto into the game's first goal with 1:58 left in the first and Nicolas DiPietro combined with Carter Kipp and Mitchell Tomaino on Welland's second tally with 14:53 left to play in the third.
The penalty-kill was just as impressive holding Stoney Creek scoreless during all three man-advantages of the game thanks to some tremendous work by Carter Kipp and others.
Brandon Alexander was his usual exceptional self, notably turning aside Warriors sniper Macauley Wellstead, who co-leads the team in goals, when he ended up all alone in front of the Tigers net as the backchecker covering him fell down early in the second period. When the Warriors did score it was the result of fortuitous bounces, such as the game-tying goal that resulted when Nolan Hemauer stepped on the puck deep in the Welland end and it skidded cross-crease over to the blade of Matthew Millar who had a gaping cage to tap the biscuit into. Wellstead would score Stoney Creek's first goal in similar lucky fashion, being in the right spot at the right time.
The Tigers did have one excellent chance to win the game with under two minutes to play when DiPietro rushed in all alone on the breakaway but he could not beat Noah Cavallaro whose large frame does not leave much of the net visible.
With the tie the Tigers remained deadlocked with the Warriors atop the standings with 27 points. Welland has two games remaining before the Christmas break, Wednesday night at home against Thorold at 7:20pm and back in Stoney Creek on December 23rd to face Glanbrook at 5:30pm. The Warriors, in the middle of a four game homestand, will square off against Port Colborne on Tuesday before playing Lincoln on Friday.