Squirts open Season with split in Columbus, News, Squirt, 2011-2012 (Athens Youth Hockey Association | Athens Ohio | Bird Arena)

This Team is part of the 2011-2012 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Oct 23, 2011 | swelsh | 1676 views
Squirts open Season with split in Columbus
The Athens Squirts won their opening game 6-1 against the Easton Kings, but fell to the Easton Bruins 6-4 as the season officially got underway Saturday, Oct 22nd at the Easton Chiller.  This year’s squad has many new faces getting their first taste of Squirt style hockey.



In the first game of the year, the Athens Squirts faced off against the Easton Kings.  The opening period started off slowly with both teams feeling each other out and testing the goalies.  Ethan Zatta opened the scoring for the Bobcats at the 5:04 mark in the first and put another puck between the pipes with 2:41 left in the first period.  With a solid effort from Jaden Laughlin in goal, the Bobcats held the Kings scoreless in the first period.

Goals were a little more plentiful in the second period.  The Kings snuck their first and only goal past Laughlin late in the second period.  But a quick 32 seconds later, Jackson Kohn took the puck from the Cats’ own blue line and fired a strong wrist shot past the Kings’ goalie.  Shortly after that, defenseman Finn Mitchell hammered home his first goal of the season to give the Cats a 4-1 lead going into the third.

The third period saw more great saves by Laughlin, helped by his defensemen: Wyatt Wood, Moss Wood, Dominic Norris & Finn Mitchell to keep the  Kings to only one goal.  Zatta also found the net one more time and to honor his hat trick, a few Athens faithful tossed their caps on the ice.  After a brief stoppage in play while the hats were being collected, Mitchell put the icing on the win with the final goal and the Bobcats were victorious 6-1.  

In the second game of the day, the Bobcats faced a much older and more aggressive team in the Easton Bruins.  The guest Bobcats jumped on the host Bruins quickly.  Mitchell broke the seal on the scoring with a wrist shot from the Blue Line and Kohn added another goal to put the Cats up 2-0 early.  But the Bruins executed crisp passes and hard skating and quickly tied the game and then went up 2-3.  Mitchell popped the water bottle with a sweet flip shot and the Cats were once again tied.  But the lead was short lived and the Bruins scored shortly after.  

The Cats fought hard and did not quit the entire way.  They successfully killed a penalty, Henry Welsh nearly put the puck in the net on a breakaway, and first year Squirt Peyton Gail showed a lot of good hustle to keep the young Squirts close. 

The Bruins went up by two later in the third.   Looking to continue his hot scoring streak,  Zatta pulled the Cats within one with just under 5 minutes to play scoring his fourth goal of the day.  The Cats pressed the Bruins hard in the waning minutes, but it was not to be.  The Bruins added one more goal late to make the final 4-6.

With newcomers Corbin Schoolcraft, Wyatt Fisher, Forest Shoemaker and Miguel Santiago-Flores showing tremendous improvement just over the two games, the season looks very promising for the Athens Bobcats.