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WELL-RESTED WAXERS SILENCE
RATTLERS AND TERRIERS The Rest appeared to do wonders for the Waxers as they defeated the Thornhill Rattlers 2-1 on Friday and Couchiching Terriers Terriers for the first time this season 7-4 the following night. "It's possible that the rest helped us," a pleased Herrington speculated. "On Friday we did a lot as a coaching staff to see that the guys wouldn't come out rusty. We spent a lot of time off the ice to get them ready to play and we just continued that on Saturday. The guys seemed ready to go on both nights." What concerned Herrington foremost was how the club would approach the game from a psychological standpoint. "I wasn't concerned with the X's and O's part. When we got to the rink I said to Jeff (Jeff Laceby, Assistant Coach) and my dad (Larry Herrington, General Manager) that we had to do something to get the guys ready to go. Sometimes the rusty thing is more a mental thing than physical and it seemed to work out." In Friday's outing, the Waxers broke a scoreless first-period tie on a goal by Bryan Lachapelle. After the Rattlers tied the game before the period concluded, the Waxers regained the lead for good with 11 minutes remaining in regulation time on a goal by Rob Bumbaco. In Saturday's win against the Terriers, Ian Malcolm recorded the hat trick and two assists to enable the Waxers to improve its fifth-place Central Conference record to 22-13-3-2. Bumbaco added two goals while Andrew Welch and David Colucci contributed singles.
Trailing 2-1 after one period, the Waxers rallied in the second period with two goals by Malcolm within a 15-second span and singles from Bumbaco and Welch to take the lead for good at 4-3 after 40 minutes. "Overall the execution of our gameplan was good," Herrington said of the two wins. "The guys took care of things in our own end. On both nights we didn't give up more than two good scoring chances per period. And we played physical but I thought we did it under control." Also contributing to the club's success was its penalty killing, which went a perfect 13 for 13 against the Rattlers and two for two against the Terriers. The Waxers return to action this Friday when they host the Durham Huskies at 8:00p.m. On Saturday the Waxers play in Huntsville.
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Friday's game will also see the Waxers honour Adam
Oates by retiring his Waxers sweater, number 10. A member of the Washington
Capitals, Oates will be the third Waxers' graduate to have his uniform number retired. The
other players include current Toronto Maple Leafs' player Steve Thomas,
number 16 and Ron Wilson, 20.