On November 10 the Kamsack Peewee Flyers hosted the first home game of the hockey season versus the Melville Mavericks, and won in a real barn burner.
The new season is always an exciting time for the kids with new players and different coaches trying to pull together and have a successful year.
The Kamsack faithful filed into the Broda Sportsplex for the 2:30 p.m. puck drop. With the Zamboni making its final pass on the ice and the great smell of the rink burgers in the lobby, hockey was finally back.
After the puck was dropped both teams took a few shifts to find their timing and especially their lungs as the kids were flying around, all hyped-up on adrenaline. First year goalie Brooke Taylor, No. 31, made some nice saves early and looked really poised between the pipes.
But Melville started the scoring two minutes into the game. Then Kamsack evened the score three minutes later when Bobby Taylor, No. 40, found Chase Hembling, No. 55 in the high slot in front of the Melville net. Hembling took two strides into the middle of the ice and rifled a wrist shot across his body to find the back of the net on the bottom right corner behind the Melville goaltender.
Both teams played end-to-end hockey for another 10 minutes of the first period with high-flying action, including great passing and unbelievable saves. Melville did take the lead with just over five minutes left to play in the opening frame. That lead did not last long though as Hembling scored his second goal of the game to send the Flyers into the intermission all tied up at two goals each.
Hembling kept his hot hands going to open the second period as he scored his third and fourth goals of the game to put his team up by two goals less than one minute into the period. Justus Blackwood, No. 60, assisted on both of his goals to send the Kamsack bench into a frenzy. Melville kept their focus though and ended up tallying four goals of their own before the period was out. Heading into the third period the Flyers found themselves staring at a score of 6 to 4 in favour of the visitors.
The coaches must have said something to these Peewee Flyers players in between periods, because they came out playing like they had nothing to lose in the third. Second year peewee Levi Erhardt, No. 58 lead the Kamsack charge. He scored his first goal six-and-a-half minutes into the final frame to pull Kamsack to within one goal.
With the home team still trailing by one goal with 8:45 left in the third period, Kealand Thomas, No. 46, potted a rebound into the net and the fans blew the roof off the barn for an incredible third period comeback. But the seesaw battle wasn’t done yet. Melville scored again with 5:29 left in the game and yet these Flyers were not going to concede defeat. Erhardt scored two more goals, his last with 2:51 left in the game. The Flyer’s would batten down the hatches defensively to preserve the 8-7 victory.
The fans left Broda Sportsplex with stories to talk about around the water cooler when they headed back to work the following day in the Kamsack Community. If these kids play at home like they did on this day, the Broda Sportsplex will be a tough barn to play in for all teams coming in and trying to take two points from this Peewee Kamsack Flyers team this season.
Unfortunately, the team couldn’t come up with their first road victory on November 11, as they lost to the same Melville team on the back end of the home-and-home games in Melville.
