The Four Wheel
Drives ended the month of November with a home and away split with the
Tavistock Royals on Saturday in Tavistock and back home squaring off against
the Seaforth Centenaires . The Milverton squad would be entering the weekend
activities coming off their first victory last weekend against the Lucknow
Lancers. Weekend action against perennial league powerhouses Seaforth and
Tavistock would most certainly put the team’s moxie to task.
Team black and
yellow rolled into Tavistock Saturday evening to square off against last year’s
league champs. Tavistock is the home of the Senior men’s club, the Royals and
also the Tavistock Braves the town’s Jr C entry. Tavi is also the epicentre for
world renown crokinole afficionados. The village hosts the World Crokinole Championship
the first Saturday in June every year. As luck would have it ,local crokinole
prodigy Wayne Keupfer has won the
prestigious championship in the past. The Royal /Drive rivalry has been around
for many years . Sometimes friendly , sometimes not so much.
First period
action got under way and with both teams trading some good chances some great
hockey was being played. Sean Kienapple would open the scoring with a dandy
shot from the wing to give the Royals the early lead. Jeff Fritzley , who has been on a tear
recently would knot the score at 1 with
his 8th goal of the season . Dennis Dewar and Derek Erb picking up
assists.
Dewar would score
a short handed tally at 13:57 of the second period with Riley Kuepfer getting
the assist. The Drives would enjoy the lead for only a short duration as the
Tavi squad would jump on a power play opportunity and tie the score at a deuce.
Halfway through the second stanza Riley Kuepfer would net his first goal on the
power play to give the Drives the lead .
Fritzley would pick up the helper. The Drives stepped off the ice at the end of
the second period with a 3-2 lead . With the period coming to an end the two
teams engaged in some extra curricular activities that would result in some
misconducts and one significant Drive player injury.
With the third
period under way the Royals would score two quick goals to take the lead 4-3 .
Brennan Watson would score on the power play, his first of the year , Kuepfer
and Dewar picking up helpers. This would knot the score at 4 with over half a
period to play. Sean Kienapple would score the game winner , his third of the game at
8:25 . The Drives couldn’t find an answer back and the Royals would score
another goal to take a two goal into the final minutes of the match. Wth Timmy
Bester out of the net in favour of an extra attacker the Drives had many good
looks but could not capitalize . The Royals would drain an empty netter and
Kienapple would add his fourth of the night to seal the deal for Tavi.
The Sunday
matinee at the PERC featured the hometown heroes matching skills with the
Cforth Centenaires. The ‘ Cents won the league championship two years ago and typically
always have a strong club. With the loss
to the Tavi Royals still a fresh memory in the team’s mind this would certainly
test the intestinal fortitude of the team. The team would glad to be home after
playing on the road for the last month. Hopefully this would be a shot of adrenaline
for the squad to play with some jam they would need against tough Cforth crew .
This was a tight
game from the outset. There was no scoring until Jeff Fritzley would score at
2:23 of the first period on a short handed effort . A gorgeous deke on the
Cforth netminder would give the hometown
their first lead of the game . No scoring in the second period as both teams
were unable to solve either team’s goal keeper. The Drives did successfully
nullify a two man power play for the ‘Cents
that enabled the Drives to maintain their lead.
Riley Kuepfer
would bend the twine with his second of the year to give the Drives a 2- 0 lead
at 16:45 of the third period. Dewar and Coleton Quipp would get assists on the
power play opportunity. The Drives played sound old time hockey from this point
on not letting the opposition back in the game. Tyler Fassl would keep the ‘Cents at bay making some
glorious saves to keep the lead intact. Both Bester and Fassl have given the
team outstanding goaltending this year.
With time ticking away and the tension building to a crescendo the
Drives were on the verge of their second victory. But alas the ‘Cents had other
plans . Jamie Huber would score with a little over 5 minutes left in the match
to get within one. The Drives knuckled down and played solid hockey for the
last minutes to secure the victory.
Needless to say this was a huge effort by the team a great effort from
all the players .
The team are on the road again next weekend in Durham on Friday and in Ripley on
Saturday. Next Drives home
game is December 9 against the Lucknow Lancers which
also happens to be Ladies Night
Happy
Birthdays to..... Mark Andre Fleury
-goalie
Chamillionaire- rapper
Matt Cameron- drummer
Rick Albrecht- insurance guy
Tell a man
that there is 400 million stars and he will believe you . Tell him that the
wall has wet paint and he has to touch it