The Canton Golden Bears Varsity Boys Hockey team fought for a win against Northwood, 6-5.
The Bears started off flat footed and unprepared, and plays were not being completed. It was not long before the Bears found themselves in a two goal deficit. Things were not looking good when Northwood scored their third goal, and many thought the game was as good as over. Canton battled, and got a few penalty calls at the end of the period, but with no success.
The second period saw improvement for the Bears, and they scored on the powerplay when a faceoff win went back to Scott Ahlfeld who made a short pass to Kaden Baxter, and Baxter took a shot that was tipped in by Garritt Palmer for the goal. The second period was drawing to a close, and the Bears had made ground up on Northwood, but unfortunately a nice passing play netted Northwood a 4-1 lead to close out the period.
The Bears had been in similar situations before, but a 3 goal lead is no easy task to come back from. The Bears started off playing a solid third period, but nothing found the back of the net until Rhett Palmer scored with just under 12 minutes remaining. Score now 4-2, the Bears had just gotten into the offensive zone when they took a penalty, and suddenly the Bears were on defense, killing whatever momentum they had just gained. That was until Rhett Palmer took the puck from a Northwood defenseman and went down and scored, and suddenly there was a hockey game.
In the next two minutes the Bears scored when Bradly Frank passed to Drew Blevins, whose shot was rebounded by Garritt Palmer for a goal, and Josh Aldous scored on a breakaway he created. In a span of about 4 minutes, the Bears had rallied back from behind three goals to up one.
The game was far from over however. Poor backchecking from Canton led to a Northwood goal, tying the game at five apiece. Chances were dominated by the Bears, who ran an effective forecheck for a decent amount of time in the third period.
Canton’s forwards kept the puck deep, and after wearing down Northwood, Josh Aldous found the back of the net after being set up by Rhett Palmer and Jonney Mclear. Canton held a 6-5 lead with only 1:15 remaining. This is plenty of time for Northwood to tie, so Canton went to work to keep the puck out of their net. A good clear early helped run down the clock for the Bears, and Cade Chezum made the saves he needed to make to clinch the win.
Canton plates Friday night against Thousand Islands/Alexandria Bay at home, 7:30 pm.
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