Big  Games  Looming - Junior B Hockey

The Junior B Predators have their practice on Tuesday afternoon to ready themselves for a huge game. They travel to Leamington on Thursday in what can be considered a 4 point game in their quest to close the gap on the Flyers. They then play host to the St. Thomas Stars on Saturday night at the Shores Recreation Centre. At stake for the Flyers and the Predators is the final playoff spot in the Western Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Of course the prize for finishing in that spot means taking on the powerful London Nationals in a series. As ominous as that task would seem the team hasn’t given up on the hope that it might yet be them.

However, the window for that opportunity is smaller after their last three outings. The first game back after the holidays was in LaSalle last Wednesday. The Predators were out shot in the game 41 – 24 and lost game 7 – 2. The goal scorers for Lambton Shores were Cody Curts and Cam Downie. Ben Woodley earned two assists and Brandon Ethier and Brendon Merritt got one assist each.

The next night our local fans watched as the London Nationals put on a scoring clinic in the first period of the game. The Predators actually came out of the gate fast and took the play to London after the opening face off. It resulted in their goal at the 2:30 mark when Coy Kulich and Brent Andriash passed to Cody Curts for the score.

Unfortunately it seemed to wake the Nationals up and they responded with 7 goals in the next twelve minutes until the Predators called a time out to regroup. After being out shot in the first period 21 – 9 the Predators responded in the second by out shooting London 17 – 9. They scored twice to close the gap to 7 – 3 to end the period.

The third period saw the Nationals dominate the play and shots on goal with a 23 – 5 advantage and the game ended at 11 – 4. Cody Curts managed to score his second of the game and Brandon Stewart and Dave Hutchinson scored the other two goals. Ben Woodley added three assists to his team leading total. Coy Kulich also added another assist as did Adam Arseneault and Sean Parker who took over in goal after the first period. Although the game was out of reach at the time a National player was shooting at what appeared as a very open part of the net during the third period. Sean Parker who was down on the ice at the time managed to extend his stick and prevent what appeared to be a sure goal. It was one of those saves that could have made the highlight reels.

On Sunday the team traveled to Chatham to take on the Maroons. The game was close and hotly contested but it ended in an 8 – 5 loss after Chatham scored an empty net goal. Goal scorers for the Predators were Brandon Stewart with 2 and Cody Curts and Adam Arseneault with one each. Ben Woodley and Matt Melo each got three assists. Brandon Stewart was also awarded an assist to add to his point total as was goalie Sean Parker.