Coquitlam, BC – After falling to Kahnawake earlier in the day 11-9, the Redhawks were ready to erase that last lost. But in doing so they had to meet a team hungry for their first win of the tournament in the Tri-City Bandits. The Redhawks prevailed 11-6, but it wasn’t easy.
With Edmund Cathers in net for the Redhawks, the Tri-City keeper also came to play. Both keepers kept the score knotted at 0 for the first 6 minutes of the game. Right from the first window, the hungry Bandits were keen on keeping all Redhawk shooters from feeling comfortable on the floor. The Bandits were constantly tying of the Redhawk shooters, especially anyone with the last name of Thompson. With the pace slowed down in rough play, Pete benedict scored the only goal of the period to the Bandits 2 giving the host a 2-1 lead.
Jeremy Thompson continued his prowess at the faceoff circle all game. Including the opening draw of the second period which the ball found its way to brother Miles Thompson’s stick and a goal tying it at 2 just seconds into the period. Tri-City then scored to take a 3-2 lead, their last lead of the game.
The rough play continued but the Redhawk shooters began to find some space. Miles, Brett Bucktooth, Jerome “Hiana” Thompson and Miles closed out the second period scoring leading 6-3. In fact after Miles scored his last goal, he and his Tri-City counterpart were off to the penalty box to serve 12 minutes each.
The third period opened with Tri-City trying to find a weakness in the Redhawk goalkeeper, instead the crowd was treated with a beautiful spinning goal by Lyle Thompson and a great blast by Brett Bucktooth to dash any hope of a Bandit comeback. The rest of the period saw the teams trade goals, and penalties as the Redhawks earned the 11-6 win.
Up next the Redhawks will face off against the St. Albans Miners, who are not only undefeated in the tournament but also undefeated throughout the 2014 season.