BLAST OFF TO FLYING START
Article courtesy of the Brantford Expositor
The Brantford Blast didn't waste any time showing off their offensive prowess on Friday night during their Allan Cup Hockey season opener.
Hosting the Dundas Real McCoys at the civic centre, Brantford scored a 5-1 win.
Although the Blast would eventually start pounding the puck into the back of the net, it took some time for things to start rolling. In fact, neither team could find the net for a shot on goal until Brantford's Dustin Alcock hit Dundas goalie Mike Mole at 2:32.
That broke the goose egg for the home team but it took the visitors a few more minutes before they got a puck on Anthony Marshall. At the six-minute mark, Marshall had to come up big not once, but twice to keep the game scoreless.
It didn't take long after Marshall's stops for the goals to start coming and the game to start looking a little more like shinny.
At 7:34, the Blast appeared to score their first goal on a 2-on-1 but the referee ruled that a Real McCoys player knocked the net off before the puck passed the goal line. That infraction gave Brantford a power play and the Blast converted at 8:36 when Chris Rebernik picked up a rebound and put the puck in the top of the net. Jamie Williams and Chris Leveille got assists on that goal.
Just 16 seconds later, it was 2-0 thanks to a goal from Derek Mederios. Going down the left wing, last year's ACH scoring champion took a pass from Joel Prpic and wristed a shot to the far side of the net against Mole to put his team up by a pair.
The Blast didn't stop there. After Cam Sault was hooked down, Brantford went back on the power play and at 11:55, Mederios had his second goal of the game, depositing a loose puck at the side of the net following a point shot from Mark Taylor. Prpic got his second point of the night with an assist.
Dundas was finally able to get one past Marshall on an odd-man rush when Shawn Snider found the back of the net after taking a feed from Scott Stafford at 13:50.
Less than two minutes later, Leveille made a great pass out of his own end to Cameron Sault in the neutral zone. Sault took the pass and went in on a 2-on-0 with Rebernik. Going down the left side, Sault picked the perfect time to pass and Rebernik made no mistake in getting his second goal of the game.
In the second period, the Real McCoys had their chances, getting three straight power plays but they couldn't trim their deficit. And by the time the game was 40 minutes old, Brantford was ahead 5-1.
The team's final goal before the second intermission was scored at 16:24 by Alcock with assists to Mike Charbonneau and Andrew Marcoux.
By that point in the game, Dundas appeared to be gassed as its players collapsed around the goal, resting their skates in the process. That showed in the shots on goal total as Brantford held a 26-12 advantage through two periods.
There was no scoring in the third as Brantford outshot Dundas 11-8.
Brantford plays twice next weekend, getting a good look at Stoney Creek. On Friday, the Generals will be at the civic centre for a 7:30 p.m. game and then on Saturday, the Blast go to Stoney Creek for a 7 p.m. contest.
Stoney Creek is 1-1 so far this season, beating Hamilton 10-3 while losing to Whitby 4-2. Whitby leads the league with a 2-0 record, its other victory coming against Thorold.
ICE CHIPS . . . Former Blast captain Mike Burgoyne was not in the lineup on Friday. Dave Russell was wearing the 'C' . . . It was a tremendous opening night crowd at the game. Although attendance wasn't given, there had to have been more than 1,000 fans at the game . . . One of the reasons the Blast may have had more jump than the Real McCoys was the fact Brantford dressed 18 skaters. Dundas dressed 14 . . . Dundas was late onto the ice for the pre-game ceremonies due to an equipment issue. Both teams came out for the warmup in their white jerseys so the Real McCoys had to change into their reds.
