A win and a tie for Jacks in pair of weekend games
Home ice was good to the Wellesley squad who skated to 4-4 decision with Paris before lopsided 9-2 win over Delhi
TAKING THREE OUT OF four points, the Wellesley Applejacks had a mixedbag weekend at home. After blowing a lead to settle for a 4-4 tie against the Paris Mounties Friday night, the Jacks blew the Delhi Travellers off of the ice Sunday afternoon in a 9-2 victory
After giving up the first goal to the Mounties Friday night, the rest of the first period belonged to the home team. The Jacks scored three goals to take a lead that ultimately wouldn’t stand up, as Paris would mount a comeback.
The visitors were on the board first at 5:34. About five minutes later, Reade MacInnis tied it up at 1-1 on the power play, with help from Alex Uttley and Sean Pickering. Wellesley then surged ahead with a pair of goals just 16 seconds apart. Koby Seiling (Uttley) netted one at 15:13, following by Pickering (Uttley, Jordan Hoekstra) making it 3-1 at 15:29.
After the intermission, 16 seconds were all Paris needed to make it a one-goal game. The Jacks restored the two-goal lead before the period ended courtesy of MacInnes (Zach Ribeiro, Danny Hanson) at 7:26. That would be it for scoring in the second frame and for the rest of Wellesley’s night.
The third period belonged to the Mounties, who outshot their hosts for the first time – 15-6 en route to a 48-38 advantage by the time OT was done – while putting up two goals to knot things up 4-4 after 60 minutes.
The overtime saw no scoring from either team, resulting in a tie when the final whistle went. The outcome was markedly different from Wellesley’s 7-3 win the last time the teams met on October 6.
Penalties and special teams played a big role, as the Mounties were 3-9 with the man advantage, while the Applejacks were 2-8.
The following game on Sunday afternoon was markedly different, the Jacks skating to a 9-2 decision over the visiting Delhi Travellers.
Well, there was one similarity, as the visitors again scored first, going up 1-0 before the game was a minute old. Wellesley replied less than two minutes later, however, as Pickering (Kyle Soper, James Ranson) returned the favour at 2:43. Delhi regained the advantage at 14:11 before Wellesley evened things out heading into intermission, with Warren Gorman (Uttley, Ranson) potting a goal with just 18 seconds left in the first period.
That was as close as the game would get, as it was all Wellesley after the break.
Ranson (Uttley) set the tone at 7:36. Despite being shorthanded, Wellesley netted two more with goals by Uttley (Drew Mullett, Pickering) around 10 minutes in followed by Ribeiro (Gorman) at 11:23. Owning the period no matter how many skaters they iced, Wellesley pushed on. Seilthere ing (Uttley, Soper) scored another goal on a power play, followed by an unassisted power play goal by Uttley. Uttley scored one more with 46 seconds left in the period for good measure, making the score 8-2 for Wellesley heading into the final intermission.
The third period was relatively uneventful, with just one more unassisted goal by MacInnis at 11:02 to make it 9-2 for the hosts.
Home ice has proven to be somewhat of a good luck charm this season: the Jacks have not lost a single match at the Wellesley arena thus far.
With the three points, the Jacks maintained their third-place spot in the Provincial Junior Hockey League’s South Doherty Division. The top two teams switched places, however, as the New Hamburg Firebirds now sit in first, dropping the Tavistock Braves into the number-two spot.
They are looking to keep up this momentum this week against the Ayr Centennials in North Dumfries tonight at 7:30 p.m., their first game against the team. The following match will be closer to home at the Wilmot arena on Saturday against the first-place Firebirds. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.