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Varsity Hockey Falls in Season Opener

When opening a season, you might as well play your opener against the #1 seeded team in the state, right?

The Varsity Ice Hockey did just this in their season opening tilt against the SLUH Jr Billikens. The Cats competed hard, but fell 9-3.

A game of such disproportion is never easy for the losing side, but it was a confidence booster for the team for 2 reasons.

 

  • The team had more than 3 shots

 

Not three weeks ago, the Wildcats faced SLUH in the semifinals of the Webster Groves Top Hat Tournament. It was definitely a game the Cats would want to forget. The score was 5-0 SLUH, but behind that score were statistics showing a much worse game. The Wildcat Defense allowed 58 shots, a huge number for a Mid States hockey game. In response, the Wildcats could only muster 3 shots. Really? Only 3? Even the Varsity Soccer Team could get more shots in a game. The Cats responded to this manhandling well and came at the Billikens with a much greater intensity monday night. The Wildcats had 15 shots on goal; still a small number, but substantial progress nonetheless. Along with this, the Cats only allowed SLUH 41 shots, much less than the previous game.

 

  • The team scored

 

This one is pretty obvious. With 3 shots in a game, a team would be hard pressed to score. This was apparent in the Cat’s 5-0 loss three weeks ago. Monday night was different. The Cats put an increased amount of pressure on the BIlliken goaltender, and eventually found success. Senior Gannon Mcward scored off a rebound in the second period, and was followed minutes later by a goal from freshman Jack Canfield. One period (and 7 SLUH goals later), senior Willie Canfield scored on a breakaway. So yes, the team lost by 6 goals, but they at least found the net.

Despite the loss, the Varsity Hockey team came out with an intensity that was missing in action in their pre-season play. With such a difficult test already out of the way, the door is open for the Cats to continue to play hard and win games.