Squirt - Squirts Win one Tie One against Wild
The Athen's Squirts won in a blow out, 11-2, and then battled back for a 4-4 tie against the West Virginia Wild on Sunday.
Despite the extra hour of sleep, the Athens Squirts started the 7:50 match a little groggy. Finn Mitchell started the scoring just a little over a minute into the contest. He followed that up with another unassisted goal at the 8:47 mark and it appeared the Cats were going to roll the Wild early. But the Wild battled back and put one past Goalie Jaden Laughlin with just 1:20 left in the first and then opened up the second period with another to knot things up at two. But that would be all they would get.
After the 10:56 mark in the second, Laughlin shut down the Wild, saving a total of 14 shots for the game, and the scoring onslaught began for the Cats. Dominic Norris broke the tie with a short handed goal assisted by Jackson Kohn. Later, Mitchell completed his hat trick and then fed the puck to Kohn with just under two minutes left in the second. Norris added his second goal at the 1:00 mark to close the scoring for the Squirts in the second.
The scoring barrage continued for the Cats in the 3rd period. Mitchell added his fourth goal with assists coming from first year Squirts Peyton Gail and Forest Shoemaker. Later, Norris completed his own hat trick with an unassisted goal. Kohn added another between the posts thanks to an assist from Caleb Workman followed by yet another goal by Mitchell. Henry Welsh closed out the scoring with his first goal of the year with the help of Gail's second assist of the game and the Squirts routed the Wild 11-2.
The Wild seemed very motivated to avenge their first loss by jumping on the Cats early and putting them in a 0-1 deficit early. Defenseman Ethan Zatta countered quickly with assits from Shoemaker and Norris and the score was tied going into the second.
The second period was filled with a lot of action, but only one goal. The Wild put one by Laughlin at the 4:18 mark and the Cats were down a goal going into the third. Ethan Zatta stepped up once again from defense and added the equalizer. But the Wild really wanted this one and added two quick goals and the Cats seemed were staring a loss straight in the face.
But the young Squirts did not want to lose one this day. The defense, led by Laughlin's 15 total saves, tightend up in the last 5 minutes and the offense started putting on more pressure. Workman added his first goal of the year off an assist from Kohn and then Zatta completed his second hat trick of the year with the assistance of Welsh and the game was all tied up.
The final minutes saw some very tense moments for the Squirts. Two penaltys put the Cats at a two man disadvantage. But sparked by the comeback, the two penalties were killed and the Cats earned a hard fought tie.
The Squirts will be in action this Saturday for two games up the Chiller North. See you all at the rink!
