The Royal LePage Midget Tyees began its season Saturday on the right foot. After some difficult placement round games the Midgets found themselves in the second division with Comox A1, Oceanside, Juan de Fuca A2 and Victoria Racquet Club A1.
The first opponent up was a rematch against Victoria Racquet Club. The disappointing loss from two weeks back was still fresh in the players’ minds and the boys were eager to extract their pound of flesh. Perhaps a little too much so as within five minutes the Tyees found themselves shorthanded with a five-minute penalty and a player’s services lost for the game.
The Tyee’s penalty killing was effective, turning back the Kings and not allowing them to set up. The shots were from outside and goalie Colton Thompson showed when tested he was on his game. The Tyees successfully killed the major, however another penalty followed shortly after and Victoria made the Tyees pay, bouncing an odd off-speed shot past Thompson. Much of the rest of the first and second, both teams struggled to create much in the way of scoring chances. However, early in the third, Victoria cashed in to go up 2-0. But in the blink of an eye, the Tyee’s Rauser quickly netted two goals, one the power play, just 44 seconds later, to tie things up at 2-2. Both teams pushed hard to notch the go ahead goal and both goalies turned away all shots.
Sunday the Tyees picked up an exhibition game against the Oceanside Generals. The Tyees played hard but showed better discipline, and connected early and multiple times, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Goodwin on the power play and Jake Mackenzie. The Generals got one back but John Kretzchmar scored off a nice rush, and again MacKenzie, with a beauty unassisted goal had the home team up 4-1 after the first.
The Generals, however, were not about to go quietly. Oceanside scored once in the second, and again in the third. This seemed to wake the Tyees up and Mackenzie scored his third of the game to put the Tyees up 5-3. With a minute fifty to go, Oceanside drew back within one, creating a frantic end to a game that had once seemed in hand. Next up is a rematch with Oceanside Sunday at 1:15 p.m. in Campbell River.