The Sunday game of the Bears against Brockville radiated the vibes of a good old fashioned whodunit movie of the Miss Marple Kind with Margaret Ruthford. One didn’t have the slightest of clues who did the murder until the very end, and in our case the killer team turned out to be the Bears with a 4:3 shootout win over the Braves.
Attentive observers will without doubt also have noticed the The Smiths Falls Special Olympics Team among the spectators, cheering for the home team.
The first period saw no scoring, even though the Bears clearly out-shot the Braves 7 to 16. This is one area the team still has to improve in the future, although, as one longtime fan remarked: “the boys played fantastic hockey.”
Tate Leeson, with the help of Cameron McLean and Theo Todd, finally pushed the Bears to the lead at 14:28 in the second period. Brendon Dempsey extended the lead with a power play goal at 18:48, assisted by Noah Adams and Tate Leeson. A two goal lead by the end of the period should have given the team enough breathing space to bring about a win, but the task didn’t turn out to be quite that easy.
The team had clearly run out of steam by the third period. Brockville however just got started. A power play goal by Corson Green at 1:11 was followed by the levelling goal by Anthony Biniaris at 8:32, and Simon Kerr brought the team to the lead at 16:42. It didn’t look good for the Bears at all, but aside from their furious effort to score this late into the period, they received a precious gift from the Braves. Brockville did what used to be one of the Bears major short comings, their temper got in the way and they racked up more penalties than the scoreboard could display at once. And Bruce Coltart said Thank You with a power play score at 18:56, assisted by Tate Leeson and Cameron McLean. At least the team had survived to overtime.
The first overtime period did not go anywhere for either team, despite the fact that the Bears out-shot the Braves 6:3.
The final shootout however redeemed the previous somewhat lacking scoring performance of the Bears. None of the Brockville shooter got past goalie Jake Smith, Tate Leeson missed his chance too with Brockville goalie Simon Harnesss, but Cameron McLean and Reid Russett hit their target for the win.
Reid Russett was awarded First Star of the game, Cameron McLean received Second Star, and Simon Harkness (BRO) earned Third Star.
Article and Photos by Chris Uhlig
