Click here for the McCall Newsrelease for November 12, 2009

McCall Newspaper, November 12, 2009

McCall Newspaper Article, November 12, 2009 (page 2)

The team is heading for Bakersfield this weekend where they are facing the Bakersfield Jr. Condors.

Photo by Gary Ertter / for The Star-News

The Idaho Junior Steelheads started their 11-game McCall home stand with a flourish
Saturday night, defeating the San Diego Gulls in a sixth shoot-out round. Gabe Gollette
(left) celebrates just after making the winning shot against Gulls’ goalie Jason Campbell.

Shoot-Out!

BY KYLA SAWYER

For The Star-News

In a six-round shoot-out and with the crowd on their feet, the Idaho Junior Steelheads captured their first season win, 6-5, over the San Diego Gulls during their inaugural game at Manchester Ice and Event Centre Saturday night. “It was fantastic! Fantas­tic! said John Barth, McCall business manager for the Steelheads. “Given the fact we were competing with other sporting events on TV that night, to have 500 people come watch these guys – Wow! It’s a big deal for McCall,” Barth said.
The Steelheads are com­posed of young men aged 16 to 20 with lightning-fast feet, hard hits and excellent skills on the ice. They are also hungry for a chance to make it to the next level either playing for a college or pro hockey team. Right from the start, both teams charged the ice. San Diego scored first, and eight seconds later, Idaho center Luke Hayes answered back with a goal off an assist from Tyson Cox of Boise. Although Idaho did a good job keeping the puck in its zone, both teams would each add another goal. As the teams headed to the locker room at the end of the first period, the Steelheads and San Diego were tied, 2-2. “I didn’t feel the score was indicative of the play, and I thought we deserved a better fate,” head coach John Olver said after the game. “I told the team not to focus on the scoreboard, but to focus on executing our game plan,” Olver said. In the second period, San Diego scored for a 3-2 lead before the Steelies stepped up their game. Idaho’s Nate Stanley of Boise beat the Gulls’ goalie short-side to score unassisted. A minute and a half later, Idaho’s Hayes, who hails from Mission Viejo, Calif., scored his second goal of the night to put the Junior Steelheads ahead, 4-3. Less than 30 seconds into the third period, Idaho’s Gabe Gollette of Orange, Calif., would score on a power play to give the Junior Steelheads a two-goal lead.
A relentless San Diego took advantage of all opportunities to score on a penalty kill. Then with less than a minute to go on the clock, the Gulls pulled their goalie and scored again to make it 5-5 and send the game in to overtime. “We let San Diego back in the game and made it very hard for ourselves,” Olver said. Neither team scored in the overtime, sending the game in to a shoot-out. The crowd at the ice rink gasped and cheered as the teams traded five rounds of either missing both shot or making both shots, forcing another round. In the sixth go-round of the shoot-out, with the Gulls having missed their shot, Gol­lette skated down the ice, faked far side, and then fired in the winning goal between the San Diego goalie’s legs to capture the Junior Steelheads’ first season win. “I’m proud of the way our team stuck in there; they didn’t give up; they kept fighting,” Olver said. “We had stretches where we played extremely well, and we had some stretches where we made a lot of mis­takes.”
The Junior Steelheads will play 10 more home games in McCall, the next double-header against the Phoenix Polar Bears, Nov. 13-14. Steelheads split other two games with Gulls The Idaho Junior Steelheads split its other two games last weekend against the San Diego Gulls. The Steelheads lost a close first match-up against the Gulls, 2-1, on Friday night at Idaho Ice World in Boise. Idaho scored the first goal of the game early in the second period. However San Diego scored a power play goal later in the second period to tie the game, 1-1. The Steelheads’ penalties may have contributed to how close the game was played. Idaho played short-handed for 16 minutes for the entire game. San Diego scored its winning goal in the final seconds of the third period to win, 2-1. Neither team wanted to lose in the final game of their three-game series on Sunday at Idaho Ice World. San Diego scored first, but Idaho came back to score two goals in the second period and take the lead, 2-1. The next 20 minutes were a tug of war. Both teams found the net again and again. At the end of the third, the score was tied 5-5 sending the game into overtime. After a scoreless five minute overtime, the teams went into a shoot-out during the second overtime, just as they did the previous night in McCall. The Steelheads scored once and San Diego scored three times to win 7-5 and get the best of the Junior Steelheads in the three-game series.

Friday night the team started off a little slow as they adjusted to the loud fans and the professionally run arena.  The 1st period was ended with a 2-0 score with Fresno in the lead.  The 2nd period quickly rounded off to a 2-1 game.  In the 3rd period the IJS decided that they could take this team and they rallied to a 3-3 game to end regulation play.  During the Overtime the teams held each other to no scores so off they went to Shoot Out play!  The Fresno monsters won with 4 unanswered shots on goal but IJS were all excited to stay with the Division #1 team and really decided that they could play with these guys and were anxious for Saturday night…

 Saturday night brought more fans and it seemed they were louder than ever…This game was played at the mercy of the officials as they really got so over-involved in the game that they actually decided the game with mis-calls and calls that were one sided.  IJS started out strong and scored first in the 1st period which ended with a 1-0 IJS leading score.  2nd period brought goals to 3-2 IJS with the officials calling a last minute goal after the time for the period had run down.  3rd period started rough and all were soon tied at 3-3.  Again, the officials decided to call an interference call on IJS with 41 seconds remaining so we finished out the game in 5 on 4 play and within the last 4 seconds, because we were short handed, the Monsters scored and won 4-3…we were all stunned.

 Sunday brought the team to a different venue and only about 75 fans but, the same officials.  The team played with great speed and brought the Fresno Monsters, despite the officials, to a great 2-1 defeat.  IJS handed Fresno their first loss in regulation and IJS played great hockey.

 All three games with Fresno were decided by one goal or one point in a Shoot Out situation.  Officiating really determined the outcome of these games in large part but it was still great hockey and our fans should be very, very proud of the Idaho Junior Steelheads.  Check out our web site for upcoming games and times: www.idahojuniorsteelheads.com

 JUST DROP THE PUCK

So, we decided to play 2 pre-season games in Helena MT this weekend to give our new team the chance to sharpen their skates and pass the puck a few times before we start the inagural Season this Friday at 7:30 at IIW.  We had never played together except for our 2+ weeks of 6 days a week practices!  I was not nervous as I have been to all the practices and because of how the team was coming together and because J.O., is the coach….we are destined to have a great Season.  You are all going to love this group of young men.  They are dedicated, they are responsible, they are respectful and they are honored to be playing on the Idaho Junior Steelheads Jr. “A” hockey team this year and they will tell you so every chance they get.

They got to Helena, home of the Norpac Division Champions 6 times over and League Champions 2 times, about 4 hours late due to bus troubles.  And so the guys only had about 4 hours before the game Friday night…they all took some quick naps, and headed to the arena to play their first game together as a team.  The 1st period was good, as we played well, and had our moments of playing what we practiced.  But, this first game was not meant to be ours, as we had a tuff time in the 2nd and 3rd periods due to the fact that we had not played together before.  The game ended 8-3 in favor of Helena.

Saturday night, we marched into the Helena Rink, and decided that we would just become the team that J.O., had told us we could be since that first day of practice.  This team, on Saturday night, was calm and cool, we were concise with our passes and dead on with our hits.  We even had a real, take off your helmet, fight occur.  We ran the Helena Bighorns into the ice…they were huffing and puffing and we burned their house down tonight!

We had 34 shots on goal, and we Beat the Bighorns 4-3 in only our second game ever!

Needless to say you’re going to just love this team this year!

Come see us play our Inagural Season Opener at IIW this Friday 7:30 and in McCall this Saturday 7:30 Manchester Ice & Event Centre…you won’t be dissappointed!

Just Drop the Puck,