The MBRP Major Midget Otters pushed their MPS league win streak to four games with a 7-1 win over the South Muskoka Bears on Friday night. With the victory, the Otters improved to 9-3-3 in their regular season and 19-10-6 overall.
Injuries and suspensions meant the Otters were working with just nine skaters against a full South Muskoka bench, but the boys came ready to play and found themselves up 2-0 at the end of the first with goals from Jack Armstrong and Cody Jones. Dylan Welsh added to the Huntsville lead to start the second period as Huntsville goaltender Scott Perry held down the fort in net with fifteen saves in the period. The Otters added three more goals (two from Jacob Schnurr and another from Cody Jones for his second of the game) to go up 6-0 before the Bears finally answered with a powerplay goal of their own.
The physical play picked up to start the third period, which the Otters mostly spent by gaining centre and dumping the puck in deep. With less than three minutes to go, Schnurr would complete the hat trick with his third goal of the game to cement the 7-1 win. Perry stopped over thirty shots during the battle and the short bench of just three defence and six forwards played excellent hockey.
“It takes discipline to win and I’m proud of them for the effort tonight,” said Head Coach Mitch Perry after the game.
The win comes after a difficult weekend for the Otters at the Silver Stick Tournament in Midland. Despite playing three extremely close games against challenging opponents, the boys had some tough luck coming away with two ties and a loss.
The first game against Hespeler was one of the Otters best of the season, with fast-paced physical action at both ends of the ice. Hespeler took the lead on three different occasions in the back and forth contest, only to see the Otters tie the game each time, with Huntsville’s third goal coming with just 30 seconds remaining on the clock.
The team didn’t start their second tilt the way they wanted to, giving up four unanswered goals to the Bradford Bull Dogs before a point shot finally put Huntsville on the board in the third period. The Otters struck again less than two minutes later to bring the score to 4-2, but that’s as close as they would come in the loss.
In their final game of the tournament, the Otters found themselves in early penalty trouble throughout the first period, but managed to keep the game scoreless with a combination of tough defence and outstanding goaltending. Huntsville was first to find the back of the net at 5:48 in the second, with Midland responding on a power play early in the third to tie things up. The home team added another powerplay marker at the end of the period to take a brief lead, before the Otters once again found magic in the final minute, scoring with just 49 seconds left as the game ended in a 2-2 tie.
The Otters will play on the road this Friday, December 11 against the Highland Storm and at home on Sunday, December 13 against the Collingwood Black Hawks at 5:10 pm at the Don Lough Arena.
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