Breaks go the wrong way for Jacks
The Wellesley Applejacks experienced a couple of firsts last weekend. Unfortunately, they came out on the wrong end of each one.
The Jacks suffered their first regulation loss in nearly two months, a 4-2 decision against the Tavistock Braves Nov. 26, and followed it up Saturday by being the first team to lose to the Port Dover Sailors all season, a 6-5 final.
“The weekend was the first time this team has faced any adversity,” said head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick, whose team hadn’t lost in regulation since a 7-4 defeat in Delhi on Oct. 1, a stretch where the team went 8-0-3.
“It was a frustrating weekend.”
Friday night against Tavistock the Jacks played a tough game against the division-leading Braves, and were in it until the final buzzer sounded. Down 1-0 after the first, Wellesley tied it up at 9:47 of the second with Corey Way’s team-leading 12th goal of the season from Shawn Fitzpatrick, which had the Jacks optimistic heading into the third period.
Tavistock retook the lead at 6:46 of the third, and from there the game unraveled for the Jacks. The team took a costly too many men penalty at 7:51, and suffered for it. Tavistock’s Darrin Pye scored just four seconds into the powerplay to put the Braves up 3-1, and Kyle Alyea made it 4-1 with a shorthanded goal at 14:47 to effectively put the game out of reach.
THAT ONE'S DENIED Wellesley netminder Jordan Bauman makes one of his 14 first-period saves in the team’s 5-4 loss to the Port Dover Sailors Nov. 27.
“It was a very good game up until then,” noted Fitzpatrick. “We had a guy break his stick on the faceoff right after (the too many men penalty) and they scored off of it. That’s going to happen.”
Eric Parr rounded out the scoring at 19:11 on the powerplay to make it a 4-2 game, assisted by Rob Hinschberger and Justin Roeder.
The Jacks looked to put the disappointing loss behind them on Nov. 27 against the winless Port Dover Sailors, who were dead last in the league with an ugly 0-15-1 record. Wellesley had won the previous three games against the Sailors this season by a combined score of 25 to 6, and they got out to a good start in this one as well.
Way scored for the sixth straight game to make it 1-0 with only 11 seconds left in the first, from Michael Forster and Geoff Parr. It was a fast-paced period with each team recording 14 shots on goal. Geoff Parr broke up the play in the neutral zone and got the puck up to Forster to start a 2-on-1 the other way, leading to the goal.
Goaltender Jordan Bauman was strong in net for the Jacks, making several key saves to keep the Jacks from falling behind early.
The Sailors came out and scored early in the second to tie it up at one just 1:56 in, but Kevin Howorth restored the one-goal lead at 6:53 with a shorthanded goal. A Sailor forward tried to dump the puck deep into the Wellesley zone from centre ice to start a line change, but the puck didn’t get deep enough and Howorth was away on a clear breakaway, shooting the puck top shelf.
Eric Parr added another less than two minutes later to put the Jacks up 3-1 at 8:48 of the second, from Way and Read Shantz, and the Jacks appeared poised to continue the Sailors misery.
“We went up 3-1 and everybody figured we were going to blow them away and they let up, and you can’t let up,” said Fitzpatrick.
Wellesley forward Geoff Parr took an interference penalty at 9:26, and the game turned in Port Dover’s favour. Connor Dorey scored on the powerplay at 10:19 to make it a 3-2 game, and Matt Vansickle completed the comeback just 1:59 later to knot it at three heading into the dressing room after two periods.
Wellesley roared out of the gates to start the third period, with Ben Ahier scoring just 55 seconds into the period from Justin Roeder and Eric Parr, but the momentum was short lived. Kurtis Pettitt tied the game for Port Dover at 5:09 and the Sailors iced the game at 16:32 with a goal by Chris Murray. The Jacks looked lethargic for much of the period, and a sloppy turnover in their own end led to the deciding goal.
“The winning goal was a bit of a fluky bounce, but we had a lot of guys who had real bad games that night. That’s two points that are going to haunt us at the end of the year, I think,” said Fitzpatrick.
The coach said that there was an added sense of disappointment in the loss to Port Dover, knowing it was that team’s first win of the year.
“Any team on any given night can come back and bite you,” he said. “It’s over, said and done, and what do you do about it?”
One thing they can do is get back on the ice and put the losses behind them, which is exactly what they need to do this weekend when they face the Delhi Travellers, who are only six points behind the Jacks in the McConnell standings, and the St. George Dukes, who are only two points behind. The next Jacks home game is on Dec. 18 against Burford at 7:30 p.m., when the Jacks will look to avenge their 5-4 overtime loss on Halloween.
Junior, senior boys taking different routes
The EDSS junior and senior boys’ basketball squads have hit the court once again, but only one of the teams will appear in regular season games.
This year, the senior team has opted not to enter into the WCSSAA league. Read more
EDSS football teams come up short in championship
The senior and junior football season ended in heartache last Friday night as both teams lost in the B Championship finals. The senior Lancers fell 27-25 to the Jacob Hespeler Hawks, while the juniors lost an equally close match 18-15 to the Eastwood Rebels. Read more
Santa to ride the rails
Christmas may be a month away, but Santa Claus is taking some time out of his busy schedule to ride the rails of Waterloo Region.
Every Saturday and Sunday from Nov. 27 through to Dec. 19, riders will have the opportunity to meet Santa, Mrs. Claus and their elves aboard the Waterloo Central Railway’s Santa Train. Read more
Optimists to raise money for Anselma House
Today (Saturday) marks the tenth annual Optimist Charity Challenge Hockey Tournament, a one-day hockey tournament aimed at raising funds for Anselma House in Kitchener. The tournament is organized by the Conestoga-Winterbourne Optimist Club and the Waterloo North Optimist Club.
“They’re building a new home in Kitchener, and our money is going towards a play area for kid Read more
Linwood PS part of community-use program
Linwood PS is one of two Waterloo Region schools that will take part in the province’s Community Use of Schools Program, the Ontario government announced recently.
The program is part of the Open Ontario plan to help students and families benefit from expanded access to programs and services in the community.
The other school is Stewart Avenue Public School in Cambridge.
“Providing school space for free after hours will help community groups keep their costs low, and help more young people in Waterloo Region get involved in community activities,” said Leeanna Pendergast, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga.
The program involves 175 schools across Ontario. For the 2010-2011 school year, the province will be investing $39.9 million to encourage increased community use of schools, including $5.9 million to help the 175 schools offer their space, such as classrooms and gymnasiums, for free to non-profit groups after school hours. It is also part of the government’s larger plan to reduce the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over five years.
“Essentially, the ministry has given money to the board and designated two sites in our board as priority sites,” explained Geoff Suderman-Gladwell, the principal of Linwood PS.
“If you come in and qualify under a broad range of uses, for example youth, seniors, non-profits, or if you’re working with that kind of a group then basically the fee that you would pay is taken out of this lump sum. So essentially the school is free.”
The principal also says that the money has come at precisely the right time for Linwood.
“The Woolwich Community Health Centre is moving their ESL for the Low-German speaking families from Crosshill Church to Linwood school, and it will be there for the next five weeks and hopefully again afterwards in the spring,” he said, adding that he wanted to get parents into the same schools their children attend so they can feel better about the education system and hopefully keep the children in school longer.
“And now all of a sudden there is this program that says, ‘oh by the way you can do this for free now,’ which was fortuitous for us because we have a group now that is taking advantage of it, and has been very appreciative.”
Overall, Suderman-Gladwell is optimistic about the program. He said most people probably don’t even realize that they can in fact rent the space at a school for their non-profit events, let alone how to go about renting it. Now that the space is free, he hopes that even more service groups and non-profits will make use of the opportunity.
“(Schools) have incredible resources in terms of seats, chairs, desks, boards, and things like that. And school gymnasiums are remarkably well stocked and very high-quality rooms for use, but I don’t know that people really understand how easy and inexpensive it is to rent them.”
EDSS boys open hockey season with win
The puck dropped on another season of boys’ hockey at EDSS on Tuesday, and with only six returning players from last year’s squad, the team doesn’t have much time to get acquainted. Read more
Coffee with a conscience
After almost a year of market research and interviews, Robin Martin has deemed the time is right for an upscale café in downtown Elmira. Next month, she is opening the doors to her new shop, The Robin’s Nest, at 29A Church St. Read more
EDSS football teams advance to finals
Both the junior and senior EDSS football teams have made a Cinderella-run through the playoffs this year and will be competing for the league championship.
Following the junior squad’s 33-0 victory over Galt Collegiate, and the senior Lancers’ 43-23 win over Southwood on Tuesday afternoon in front of a cold but happy crowd at EDSS, they moved on to play for the championship at St. Read more
Kings see positive signs in weekend split
The Kings managed a split last weekend in a pair of tough games, beating the division-leading Guelph Hurricanes 5-3 in Guelph Nov. 13, following it up with a tough 2-1 loss to the Stoney Creek Warriors at home on Sunday. Read more
