Burlington Chiefs vs. Welland Harpwood’s Trophies Bantam #1 Raiders
vs. 
For nearly the entire first two periods, the Welland Harpwood’s Trophies Bantam #1 Raiders were clearly the better of the two teams on the floor. However, the Chiefs refused to quit and pushed the Raiders to the limit in the final frame, losing by a narrow 5-4 margin.
In this home-opener for the Raiders, the hosts came out strong to open the game. After an apparent goal from #15 Matt Sanche of the visitors was waved off for a crease violation at the 6:30 mark, #19 Sebastien Beaudoin converted a quick feed from #91 Anthony Difruscia at 7:12 to stake the home side to an early one-goal lead with a short-handed marker on #1 Thomas McHugh. #36 Kevin Millejours would then put the Raiders up by two by re-directing a #93 Damien Alfieri pass at 9:44 for a 2-0 first period advantage.
Alfieri would find the back of the Chiefs net himself, tallying at 4:41 of the middle period to put his team up 3-0. However, Burlington would strike back minutes later when #11 Keyan McQueen beat Welland netminder #29 Graeme McCullough at 8:35 to make it 3-1.
Undeterred, the Raiders resumed their attack, and it paid dividends when #15 Brooker Muir scored unassisted at 10:12 of the second stanza. Millejours would add his second of the game, from Sebastien Beaudoin at 14:54 to go into the third period with a 5-1 lead.
The final 15 minutes saw a shift in momentum, with the Raiders no longer carrying the command of the game as they had earlier. For the first two periods, the Raiders were able to frustrate the Chiefs and not surrender many open looks to them. As a result, the Chiefs often fell victim to the shot clock, but not so in the last period.
Burlington would reply with three unanswered goals to close to within one of the Raiders. #19 Ryan Callaghan would score at 5:07 and then set up #17 Gianni Bianchin at 8:27, before #18 Marcus Elvin deposited a Keyan McQueen pass behind McCullough to make things interesting in the closing minutes.
Burlington pulled their netminder in favour of the extra attacker, however, Welland was able to grab possession of the ball in the final thirty seconds and kill off the remaining time without surrendering a last-minute equalizing opportunity.
Penalty-killing prowess was a definite storyline in tonight’s action with the Raiders fending off fourteen minutes of infractions and not allowing a single goal during five power-play chances for the Chiefs, including a 2-man disadvantage for a full two minutes in the third period. The Chiefs were assessed only one minor penalty, which the Raiders were unable to convert.
The Raiders lost five possessions due to shot-clock expiry, with the bulk of these coming late, whereas Burlington lost possession ten times throughout the contest, but most of these occurred during the opening two periods of play.
Welland outshot Burlington in every period and by a margin of 22-14 overall. Burlington won the face-off battle 3-2 in outright draw wins.
Tonight’s Boxscore
Burl 0-1-3 4
Wel 2-3-0 5
Video highlights to follow.
2 Comments
May 15, 2008 at 7:44 am
that game was too close for comfort
May 15, 2008 at 5:07 pm
i think you are a very good writer.