Trojans win season opener over Beardy's Blackhawks

Trojans win season opener over Beardy's Blackhawks

 
FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Tuesday night Tisdale began the regular season with the Trojan's first home game of the year.

It was a time to mark the occasion with a fitting ceremony with the lights out, the spot light on and the Trojans introduced one by one. The arena was close to capacity as cheering fans welcomed this year's team to the ice.

Then a presentation of the "third" set of jerseys, O' Canada, and
 
 

the official puck dropping.

For the first five minutes of the game the Beardy's Blackhawks had a tough time getting near the puck as the Trojans controlled play in both ends of the rink. Above right you can see the first goal as the Trojans jumped into an early lead and the rest of the first period was a one goal hockey game.

Half way through the first period the play began to lag a bit as Beardy's tried to slow the fast pace of the Trojans. That first goal came on a power play.
 
 

Tisdale fans are always pretty reserved but Tuesday night's game was pretty loud in that first period as the Trojan's fans got behind their team.

There were some fans with the Blackhawks and they offer both encouragement and approval through out the game.

Tisdale had several of their defense out with injuries and had to rely upon their forwards to fill in for the injured players. Shane Gimas and Mike Reich seemed to fire up the team through the first period as the Trojans out shot the Blackhawks two to one. Ryan Sutherland, the Beardy's goalie stuck to good positional
 
 
play and let in only the one goal.

The second period with just over a minute of play was brought to a crashing halt by the play that every coach, parent and player dreads. We all should have seen this sort of thing disappear two decades ago but unfortunately checking from behind remains a terrible threat.

The QuickTime clip shown here shows the play as the puck carrier is drilled into the boards behind the net. He was taken off to the hospital and to everyone's relief suffered a minor injury, a separated shoulder, hardly minor but compared to a spinal injury a trivial matter. (If this clip does not play for you
download QuickTime, even though your computer has QuickTime it must be the latest version to handle media of this type.
 
 

The remainder of the second period was a slow penalty filled affair. The Trojans played most of it with three skaters to Beardy's five.

This season's Trojans are not a big team in physical size but they are really excellent skaters and to contain them their opposition has to check them and slow them down or suffer the consequences of being used as pylons
 
 

The third period was much more like the first with the Trojans at full throttle as the score moved up to three and Beardy's put two into the net.

Each new season in an effort to improve the game or speed things up new rules are introduced. In the late 50s and 60s referee and linesmen would actually whistle when they dropped the puck to cue the time keeper. By the late 60s this practice was abandoned as the whistle seemed to be blowing all the time and players were ignoring it. Well it seems the lesson has been forgotten as linesmen and referee now blow almost continuously between the end of play and the start of the next play. The average is about four whistles from stoppage of play until the puck is dropped. It is really a "Fox40" festival. The ball-less and loud "fox40" has been the standard whistle now
 
 

for nine years only it seemed that in Tuesday's game they tried to equal all seasons combined in a single game.

Goal one was a beauty with a two on one break making it impossible for Sutherland to cover his net and the game ended (right) with an equally great goal as Tisdale won the face-off the puck snapped back to the point and the shot was dead on. Sutherland was well out of his net to cut down the angle but it wasn't enough as the high shot whizzed over his shoulder into the net and come flying back out ending the game with a Trojan win and a score of 4 - 2.
 

Timothy W. Shire

 

The Video of this game with play by play is available from Faster Than Light Communications
(306 873-2004) for $15 plus tax and postage.


 

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This page is a story posted on Ensign and/or Saskatchewan News, both of which are daily web sites offering a variety of material from scenic images, political commentary, information and news. These publications are the work of Faster Than Light Communications . If you would like to comment on this story or you wish to contact the editor of these sites please send us email.
 

Editor : Timothy W. Shire
Faster Than Light Communication
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306 873 2004