Team Shea (black) dodged a bullet tonight. Leading 4-0 after the first period, they let Team Perkins come all the way back to tie before waking up long enough to score the winner late in the third for a final of 5-4.
In fairness, the main difference in the first two periods was goaltending. With only three puckstoppers, they rotated in and out each period, switching teams in the process (FYI - Patrick Johnson is the one not available, due to a back injury. Webb is at camp after all).
Hellyer started the game in the Shea cage, with Webb playing for Perkins and surrendering the four goals. In the second period, Webb switched to Shea and Justin McDonald came in to tend goal for Perkins. In that frame, Perkins scored three times on Webb to cut the deficit to 4-3. For the third period, Hellyer played for Perkins and McDonald switched to Shea. Each goalie allowed one goal, first when Braeden Adamyk beat McDonald to tie the game with 11 minutes left, then when Hellyer surrendered the winner to John Sonntag, of all people, a few minutes later (it was the only goal Scott let in all night).
For the second straight night, the Dommett-Calkins-Adamyk line combined for four goals. In this case, it was all the offence their team mustered. Just before the second period started, I leaned over the glass and told Calkins to go get me a goal. Literally less than 30 seconds in, he wired one past Webb's left pad. Dommett scored top shelf a few minutes later and Calkins added another one immediately after that.
In the first period, Pearce Gourley scored twice for Shea, along with singles from Sanfred King and Taylor Duzan. Gourley looks good every time I see him.
Ex-captain Jordan Braid laced up tonight, wearing #55 on the Perkins blueline. He was there because the camp roster is short on defencemen, but it's funny to see after how well he did in his blueline stint last season.
Speaking of Braider, he's heading down to Georgia to play with the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League. It's great to see him find a place in the pro game. He told me he's going in as a forward, but wouldn't be opposed to playing D if needed. It's quite remarkable how quickly he adapted to defence late last year - so much so that CIS coaches who considered signing him liked him better as a defenceman than a forward.
There were a few returning players who really looked terrific tonight. Jesse Mysiorek was a force, laying the body and also looking pretty damn good with the puck on his stick. He was with Duzan and Hoffman, which gave him a little more freedom in the offensive zone. He keeps that up and he might push for a top six spot. You never know.
When I got to the rink, Nancy Ternes (who retired from the marketing manager role this year) said Lance Tabin looked like a new player last night. It didn't take long into the game for me to agree. There's a lot more intensity in his game. He was a major physical presence tonight and made some nice outlet passes too.
Sanfred King told me a few nights ago that he feels 100% and it shows. You can tell he's got that extra gear, that spring in his stride that he hadn't gotten back yet last year. No goals, but he looked terrific and I'm told it was the same last night.
Another guy who I was impressed with was Beau Taylor. For a kid who only left Australia to play hockey five years ago, has he ever come a long way. In a situation like that, skating is usually the most important thing to work on and that's the case for him. I could tell tonight he's been working hard on it over the off-season. He plays in Australia's main league in the summer (his team plays in a shopping mall...) - not much of a challenge, but every minute on the ice is time well spent for a late starter. He flitted all over the ice tonight, established himself as a physical presence and seemed to be right in the middle of every scramble around the net.
Finally, he isn't a returnee, but Austin McDonald looked fantastic. The person who commented on the blog earlier today about his skill was bang on. He's got speed to burn and great hands. The younger brother of goalie Justin, he'll go back to Beardy's this year, but I'm tempted to already pencil him into next year's line-up.
After two days of training camp, Larry Wintoneak said it best tonight: "We got some real tough decisions to make."
Tomorrow night is the annual Blue & White Game. 7 p.m. at the Complex. Be there or I'll swear.
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