Written by After dealing with Winter Storm Nemo for two days, and adjusting to rinks actually closing their doors, the Flames returned to the ice. Sunday afternoon at West Side Arena, the first and second place teams in the Mass. Selects Pee Wee Indian Division met for the 6th time this season. The Flames came into play in 1st place, with a five-point lead in the standings over the Bulldogs.
1st Period: The first period was slow and choppy for the first few minutes, but then things started to speed up. Primarily it was the Flames skating and offensive pressure that seemed to get better with each passing minute. Although the period would end scoreless, the Flames outplayed their opponent by a wide margin. The Bulldogs’ goaltender did all he was asked and more, turning away all 16 shots the Flames put on net. Meanwhile, Anders Lindberg could have been dozing at the other end and few would have noticed, as he saw just two shots on goal for the entire period. That’s right, a 16-2 advantage against a team that has beaten the Flames three times this season.
2nd Period: In the second period things went largely the same way for the first six minutes or so. Then Sam Hebert scored a pair of goals in a span of 22 seconds. First, Sam, Wil Hebert, and Sebastian Beal broke out of their own end, three across. Then Sam made a pass that Beal flipped quickly to Wil. Wil carried the puck up wing, got a good shot on net, and the rebound came out to Sam who put it home. Then it was Sam to Wil who fed Kyle O’Flaherty for a clean shot. That too was saved, but Sam Hebert got to the puck and fired it home. Then the Flames took a high-sticking penalty and gave momentum back to the Bulldogs for a few minutes, but Lindberg and the defense kept the visitors off of the scoreboard. The period ended with the Flames leading 2-0, and holding a 27-8 advantage in shots.
3rd Period: Chippy, and a chance of more chippy-ness is how I would describe most of the third period. The teams combined to earn at least 10 penalties, with each team being whistled for 5 infractions. There were more than that, but those were the ones which were called. Wil Hebert capped off his 3-point day with an unassisted goal midway through the period, to give the Flames a 3-0 lead. Shortly thereafter the Flames took a penalty, killed the penalty, and should have been called for another penalty, when the Bulldogs scored. The goal stopped play, at which time the Bulldogs coach was warned, and then slapped with a bench minor, while arguing about the non-call that led to a Bulldog goal. Penalties were traded over a period of a few minutes before the Flames ended up on the power play again. This time the Flames scored to make it 4-1. On the play, Sean Moore worked the puck back to Patrick Goren at the point, and then Goren fed the puck to Zachary Bayer on the half-wall. Escaping traffic, Bayer peeled off of the boards and turned towards the net; roofing a laser of a shot up under the crossbar for the power play goal. A couple more penalties were called before Jackson Puzzo scored on another play that was set up by Kyle O’Flaherty. Kyle and Jackson played good hockey today, along with the rest of the Flames. Puzzo took a pair of penalties on shifts that he extended on his own, but he made some good passes, was physical, and got several shots towards the net, including the goal. The final score would read 5-1 in favor of the Flames, who also put a whopping 40 shots on goal for the game.
This was one of the best efforts all season from this Flames Pee Wee team in my opinion. First, the Flames skated hard for the full 45 minutes. Second, they weren’t afraid to play physical and to match some of the feistiness they met on the ice. Third, they back checked, cleared their own doorstep, moved the puck, and got pucks deep or on net. Interestingly, and almost in a weird way, the season series is knotted at three wins apiece for these two rivals. The crazy part is the sequence of scores in this series. Here are the scores in the order the games were played, showing the Flames side of the score first; 3-5, 5-3, 3-2, 2-3, 1-5, 5-1. Six games, three wins each, 19 goals each, and only three different game scores.