Too close to call

A hard fought Lac St-Louis inter-regional game between the midget A West Island Kings of the Centre Division and the Ile Bizard Eagles of the North Division ended in 2-2 draw due to an odd technicality, last Sunday at Dorval Arena.

With just 20 seconds remaining, the Eagles pounded in their third goal to make it 3-2 on a five on three situation in favour of Ile Bizard. However, it was promptly disallowed when the score keeper noticed it was 10 minutes to 8:30 pm. According to Lac St-Louis arena regulations all games must end 10 minutes before the full hour is due in order to give the Zamboni enough time to clean the ice for the next game, regardless of the time left on the clock. “I would allow the goal, but then the other team (the Kings) would be allowed to contest the goal and they would win,” said one of the game’s referees.

The King’s Cody Howarth scored the game’s first goal with just 1:27 into the opening period. The remainder of the game was marked by a consistent shift in momentum. With just over a minute remaining in the first period, the Eagle’s Daniel Marineau found the back of the net only to fall behind once more in the second period when the King’s Matt Coveney scored a well placed low shot on a power play with 3:37 into the period.

The shot, Coveney claims, was head coach Bill Howarth’s, idea. “Coach told me to shoot low and I listen to his advice,” said Coveney. “I plan on scoring seven to 10 more goals this season.”

Penalties also proved to be costly for the Kings as they found themselves in a five on three situation with just seconds left in the third period. “We’re trying to teach our players to be responsible for their action,” said King’s assistant coach John Ellis. “Penalties take away the momentum, we had to stop our attack and play defensively.” “Overall we played well,” said Eagle’s assistant coach Johnny Vaccaro. “We grinded well, but the referees should know we’re not playing Atom, there should be some clutching and grabbing allowed to a certain extent.”

The Kings, a team with a history of struggling in the standings, have been playing well as of late. In their last tournament they won three out of four games. “We work on each of the players strengths,” said Howarth. “We’re going to surprise some people.”

The Kings will play their next two games at the Bob Birnie Arena against the Lakeshore Panthers tonight at 9 pm and will then face the West Island Remparts Saturday at 6 pm.