Sports
November 29, 2008 01:31 AM
Mike Hayakawa
The Stouffville Spirit’s winning streak was brief, to say the least.
One game to be exact.
Hoping to salvage what has been a disappointing regular season in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Central Division, the Spirit reverted back to its losing ways falling 3-2 to the St. Michael’s Buzzers at the Stouffville Arena Thursday.
They trailed 2-0 after one period and 3-1 through two and couldn’t score on six power-plays.
Brandon Walker scored a goal just past the midway point of the third period that enabled the Spirit to cut their deficit to within a goal.
The Spirit had a good opportunity to force overtime when defenceman Pat McEachen took a shot that struck the goalpost late in the contest.
Craig McDowell accounted for the Spirit’s first goal.
The Buzzers outshot the Spirit 37-27.
“We had a bad start, but I thought we battled back,” Spirit head coach Mark Joslin said. “Brett (Joslin, Mark’s son) got into a fight (with Andrew Hackett) early in the second period and it seemed to light a spark from there. But we couldn’t capitalize on our power play.
“You can’t have a bad start against a team like St. Mike’s and our special teams need to be addressed. We will be addressing our special teams during practices this weekend.”
If there were any positives to be taken from the game, Joslin felt the play of goalkeeper Kori Coelho enabled his club to stay in contention. Especially in the first period in which the Buzzers outshot the Spirit 15-4.
Defenceman Jarred Seymour and forwards Jake Dellavalle and Jason Heydon sat out with injuries.
With one victory, three shootout wins, three shootout losses and 23 losses, the Spirit resume league play Thursday when they host the Hamilton Red Wings at 7:30 p.m.
For more on the Spirit, log on to:
www.stouffvillespirit.com