Holiday break comes back to haunt bantam AA Royals

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

Members of the bantam AA West Island hockey Royals may have truly enjoyed the holiday break, but it proved to be a deterrent on Sunday afternoon against the Suroît Express.

The Royals, who enjoyed a wonderful first half of the season, having lost only one game heading into the contest at Bob Birnie Arena in Pointe Claire, seemed to still be in festive mode during the first two periods of the contest. They came out flat, waiting until the third period to literally slap themselves in their faces and wake up. That was when they managed to tie the game and come away with a 1-1 tie. The contest was actually called with a little under two minutes left to play due to time constraints. Both teams picked up a point as well as another for fair play.

“A little too much turkey and stuffing still in their bellies,” said Royals head coach Kirk Mullen. “We just weren’t sharp out there. But listen, we’d been off since Dec. 8, and hadn’t practised at all during the break. It’s tough to hit the ice after that much time off and play good hockey.”

Neither teams managed to put together many good scoring chances in a first period that ended in a scoreless tie, but Jonathan Theoret did manage to beat Royals goaltender Ryan Kresevic with a nice shot from the slot with a little over seven minutes gone in the middle frame to give the Express a 1-0 lead. The score stayed that way until the Royals’ Simon Ouellet poked in a rebound off a solid slap shot from the point by Michael Matheson with seven minutes gone in the final period. Ouellet’s goal seemed to inspire the Royals, who then had several golden opportunities to win it, particularly on two Sean Langton breakaways that came up short.

“Philip Zielonka, our leading scorer, didn’t play because of an injury,” said Mullin. “He might have knocked one in for us. Still, I expect the guys to be sharper next time out.”