MULTIMEDIA

NEED THE PLAYER?

The Waxers concluded their two-game mini-series with the Collingwood Blues with a well deserved 4-2 victory. Markham's attack ran into a hot tender who single handedly kept the contest close, Kevin Cribari led the attack with two goals and chipped in with an assist.

The Waxers took a few minutes to get into gear and early on it became blatantly obvious that the blue and white were going to be in a contest with tender at the opposite end who was thwarting outstanding scoring chances, one after the other. While the Blues scored an early power play goal to net the sole goal of the period one got the sense that it would be only a matter of time if they could somehow solve the red-hot Blues' goaltender. In the defensive zone, save for the opening goal where Anthony Guadagnolo seemed to get caught off balance for an instant the rookie sensation would match his veteran counterpart with several outstanding stops of his own to send a loud message to the host opponents and his own teammates that "never fear, 'G-Man' is here" (sorry but it was quite true).

The Waxers had a handful of excellent chances turned away, especially during the PP early in the second but the Waxers continued to press and their attack while relentless was extremely creative, not just a matter of hammering shot after shot but rather plotting to create excellent scoring chances. That hard word paid off later in the period when Ryan Olidis battled hard along the right wing boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone and after gaining control Ben Cottreau found himself in the "red zone" and after smartly hesitating before unloading with bullet wrister/snapshot the Waxers finally got on the board to even the score. Late in the period the Blues' tender took what would be an ill-timed penalty and less than a minute later Jamie Wright sent the puck from the point to an awaiting Mark Menonte who smartly redirected/deflected the disc past the helpless goalie for the go ahead score. Clearly that goal was the turning point in the hard fought contest. Twice earlier in the period Guadagnolo made not one but two spectacular stops, big time saves that were huge in what was a contest that had goals be a precious commodity.

After the second period domination by the Waxers the eventual game winner cam off the stick of Cribari, when he slam dunked a rebound home from in tight near the right edge of the crease after Ryan Steane's shot bounded off the tender's pads right onto Cribari's stick. The Blues scored a second power play goal to give some hope for the home town crowd to cut the Waxers lead to 3-2. Late in the contest Cribari chipped home the lights-out goal and allowed the Waxers to keep pace with the Raiders (who defeated the Rattlers earlier in the evening) and a share of the extremely competitive South Division top of the food chain.

Next up are the Newmarket Hurricanes who make their first visit of the year to Markham Friday night.

G A M E   S T A T I S T I C S

No.

 G

A

PTS

PIM

PPG

SHG

GWG

TOTALS