The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page - January 27, 2009
POSSE CHASE AFTER CHIEFS
A mid-week game against Chase filled Princeton Arena as the Valley First Princeton Posse hosted the Chiefs January 21st.
In the words of Posse Assistant Coach Kevin Robillard, “The Chiefs always bring their ‘A’ game,” which obviously forced the home team to amp it up a notch.
It also marked the first home game for returning Posse veteran and fan favourite Dan Hillman.
Talk about amping it up a notch or two! The first period was over in exactly 25-minutes of real time with only one penalty (Princeton’s Matt Chomyc for Boarding at 9:04) and the scoreboard showed both teams had scored a goal each (Princeton was first at 14:43, John Minot from Matt Chomyc and Chase tied it at 4:23).
The second period was another blazing fast 20-minute third of a game with no more scoring but end-to-end play that led internet play-by-play announcer George Elliott to state, “It’s a lot like watching the back and forth play of a tennis match.”
The third period saw Chase take the lead at 17:17 on the power play and then widen the gap at 2:51.
Princeton chose to pull goalie Tanner Sheridan, who played an incredible game making diving saves and giving up few rebounds, for an extra attacker in the final two-minutes of play. The Posse did a great job of keeping the puck in Chase territory and shut down a couple attempts at goals on the empty net.
The hard work paid off with 1:20 left in the game when Wade Masch passed to Jason Alessio who fired a shot on goal and Kyle L’Arrivee managed to get enough stick on it to deflect the puck into the Chase net.
The power play goal gave L’Arrivee the all-time Posse career goals scored record with 40, passing former Posse player Jeremy Wagner’s total of 39 and bringing him within one point of tying Wagner for the all-time Posse career points record.
There were other scoring chances, but not enough time and Princeton could not tie the game to force overtime.
The Princeton Dairy Queen/Overwaitea Players of the Game were: #3 - Dan Hillman, #2 - Tanner Sheridan and #1 - Kyle L’Arrivee.
Final score: Chase 3, Princeton 2. Shots on goal: Princeton 31, Chase 20. Penalties: Princeton 9 for 26-minutes, Chase 4 for 8-minutes.
