View From The Ice
by Brett Holmes
November 03 1997
The Provost Bantam Tier II team took off to Mannville for their first game of the season.
We made it to Mannville to take on the Mannville Bantams in league play.
We got dressed and headed out onto the ice for our warm-up.
As we stretched we watched the home team skate out. About 15 of them I thought. Then I was told 17 players including two goalies.
That was five more players than we had. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.
We put our first line of Stempfle, Benoit and Holmes out to start the game with Landmark and Moncrieff quarterbacking on defense.
The play was fast with Provost putting on the pressure early.
The puck went back into our end for a few seconds until Provost broke out when Holmes banked it off the boards to Paulgaard who then went cross-ice to Ganser. Ganser carried the puck to the hash marks and used their defenceman as a screen. He let the shot go through Mannville’s goalie’s legs and to the back of the net.
On the very next play Moncrieff ended up with a roughing penalty while defending Provost’s zone.
It took just three seconds of penalty time for Mannville to score on a slapshot from the blueline. The game was now tied at one a piece.
Holmes had a chance to give his team the lead in front of the net, but just shot the rolling puck over the open net.
Stempfle also had a chance but just couldn’t pull the trigger from in close.
With just a few minutes left Provost had a break. Glencross and Holmes. Two-on-one. Glencross took the puck for the length of the ice, sucked in Mannville’s defenceman and passed it out front to Holmes, who redirected his pass just inside the post to take the lead 2-1.
But again, in the second period, Mannville tied the game up when their player went end to end.
Just a minute later though, Benoit, on the power play took a pass from Landmark and no Mannville player attacked him. Benoit walked in and shot the puck in the far side beside the goalie’s glove. Again we took the lead.
And again they tied it up minutes later on yet another power play.
After Holmes had been caught for cross-checking, the Provost Bantams did a great job keeping it out of their end. Carroll and Adams played perfectly getting back in time to defend their net.
Holmes skated out of the penalty box just in time to catch a pass from Paulgaard. Holmes skated down the middle while Paulgaard went down the side.
Holmes passed just as he was getting checked to send Paulgaard in all alone.
He made no mistake deking to one side then the other to slip it in the corner.
While shorthanded on Carroll’s penalty, Ganser made the other team cough up the puck to him. Ganser raised the puck to his height in the top corner.
After this goal we had the lead 5-3. Mannville scored once more to make it a bit closer.
The third was more of a defensive period for us, trying to preserve the win. So, our goalie Stahl kept the puck out stopping a couple of breakaways.
The only goal in the third came from Benoit which was his second of the game. He scored it unassisted just a few seconds after the face-off.
The game was locked up and over. The Provost Bantams were one for one.
We hope to stay at the same pace for our next game here in Provost against Consort. We may have an exhibition game before Sunday.
Provost scoreboard:
First Period-
Ganser (Paulgaard, Holmes); Holmes (Glencross).
Second Period-
Benoit (Landmark, Paulgaard); Paulgaard (Holmes); Ganser (unassisted)
Third Period-
Benoit (unassisted).
This season there are two Provost Bantam teams and I will be reporting for what is called the Tier II team. If other sports teams wish to submit articles for publication they are welcome to do so.
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