Standings after January 13th
1. Eagles 4 (25-6)
2. Bear Claw 2 (20-11)
3. Knights 2 (9-6)
4. Yeti 2 (18-13)
5. Colonials (10-7)
5. Walkers 0 (5-24)
6. Hounds 0 (6-26)
Colonials Rally in 3rd Period-------- Edmiston shines in debut. Colonials 10 Bear Claw 7
It looked like the Bear Claw was on their way to another win, but then the flood gates opened. Zach Foradori, Brice Miller and Anthony Schuckers all contributed goals to help give the Bear Claw a 6-2 lead late in the 2nd period, but the Colonials got a glimmer of life when Jay Edmiston scored with less than 10 seconds left in the 2nd period to give the Colonials a spark of momentum going into the 3rd period. The Bear Claw got up 3-0 by the end of the first period and it took the Colonials over 20 minutes to finally get a shot passed Bear Claw goalie Kaden Coulter when Jay Edmiston finally scored for the colonials. The Bear Claw answered to make it 4-1 before Edmiston set Brian up for a goal to close the colonial deficit to 4-2 but then the bear claw opened up a 4 goal lead late in the 2nd period after answering the colonial goal with 2 of their own. Even with Edmiston’s late 2nd period goal to give them some hope, the colonials still went nearly 7 minutes without scoring in the 3rd period, then the goals suddenly became contagious. Bob set Brian up for the first colonial goal of the 3rd period, then Bob scored a couple of his own and set Edmiston up for some more goals and just like that, the colonials went up 7-6 in a short span. Anthony scored a backhand goal to temporarily stop the bleeding for the bear claw and tie the game up at 7. Following a bear claw time out with around 5 minutes to go, the colonials scored the last 3 goals of the game, with one of the goals coming on a tic tac toe sequence (Brian/Bob/Edmiston). Another goal came on a Fred Terwilliger shot that hit Brian on the hand and the shot somehow found its way to a wide open Edmiston to put the colonials up by 2. Edmiston led the way with 5 goals while Bob scored 3 and Brian scored 2. John Matchock made some big saves for the colonials early in the game when the bear claw controlled the majority of the play. Kaden Coulter also played very well with the exception of the last half of the 3rd period. The Colonials had trouble getting people to show up last season and aren’t off to a great start this season. Rooster was not present for them last night. Tim Herman did not get good news on his shoulder injury which will mean more time in net for John Matchock (he was hoping to do more skating this season). With Tim Herman’s void in net and Matchock’s void skating out, Phil Mace is going to join the team to round out their roster. He is celebrating a birthday today and planning on joining the colonials next week against the hounds. The Bear Claw will try to get back on track against the Knights next week. On a good note, Zach Foradori was able to get some media time this week in an attempt to defend himself from a couple interviews that were posted after last week’s games.
Josh Clontz continues to live a dream life with his new team. Eagles 11 Walkers 4
What else can a person ask for----- a club sponsored team, good teammates around him, eating pizza after games, wearing Jerred Amick’s jersey and best of all ---- scoring goals. That’s the hockey life Josh Clontz is living after 2 weeks to open the 2025 XHL season. He might feel like he is playing for the Renegades all over again, only this time, in a completely different role. Just before the season started, he was planning on spending the winter time doing as much snowboarding as possible. Then the eagles called him to take Zach Foradori’s spot (see more description in Josh Clontz interview). Eric Llewellyn’s thought process ---- who needs a guy who takes all season to score 7 goals when Josh Clontz can score 7 in one game? Anyone can have one lucky game once in a while, but the 7 goal performance last week was followed up by another 4 goals last night to help set the tone for the Eagles in last nights win. Despite the loss for the walkers, this was a much better showing than last week. We all considered last week’s mercy rule loss to the bear claw a big disappointment. They quietly hung around in this game but got off to another slow start. Tony Dodd made some good saves but the Eagles had some good passing throughout the game to make his job much tougher. We saw a lot of Clontz/Llewellyn connection in this game. Alex Waddell scored in the first period for the eagles which saw them open up a 4-0 by the end of the first period. Four different players scored for the walkers (Johnson/Conforto/Gaydosh/Stinchcomb and they had a couple good chances to draw closer in the 3rd period after being down 9-4 after 2 periods. Eric Llewellyn and Josh Clontz put the game well out of reach in the 3rd period which improves the eagles to 2-0 on the season. Josh Clontz may not want to give Jerred Amick his jersey back following these first 2 games. Henry Sutter knows he will be looked upon a little more as the season goes on, but for now, he is enjoying watching his team develop some good chemistry for what they hope will be a chance of winning a championship. They will be off next week before going up against the colonials on January 27th. Josh Clontz offered praise to the walkers in his interview. With a full lineup and some more games (missed Troy Gaydosh last week and Mark Chesley last night), they could continue to hang in against the league’s best teams. Their life wont get any easier when they go up against the Yeti next week.
Yeti pick up first victory of the season-------- Still looking for more people to show up Yeti 12 Hounds 4
Despite having 8 skaters on the roster, the yeti had to recruit Denny off the court just to have enough to play ironman last night (Zach, RJ, Braxton, Denny). The Hounds probably wish that he would have left after the walkers game against the eagles last night. We saw a lot of Zach/Denny connection in this game as they accounted for all but one of their goals (Braxton had the other). Zach Smith got the scoring started on a shot from near half court that snuck by several players including Bubba to give the Yeti a 1-0 lead a couple minutes into the game. The lead would grow to 4-0 late in the first period until Jaron Buffone snuck a good shot past Yeti goalie Adam McKinley to close the gap to 4-1 after the first. Andrew Britton scored 2 goals for the Hounds in the 2nd period to keep them to within a 3 goal margin but the yeti slowly pulled away in the 3rd period. Jeremy Sawey scored the 4th goal for the hounds last night but the deficit had grown to 9-3 before Saweys goal closed the gap to 9-4. Zach Smith and Denny put the game well out of reach as the 3rd period went on. Bubba made some difficult saves but probably wishes he could have a couple of those yeti goals back (all goalies experience this a time or two every game). The Hounds will go up against the colonials next week and the yeti will go up against the walkers. Cody should be able to make his yeti debut next week and possibly Kevin. Neither have made it to the first 2 games. Derik, Dave and Ben were all out of the lineup last night. Ben was not in the lineup last week either. Corey Bassett reached out about playing every other week for the hounds starting next week.
Comments