William Earley recorded a shutout Friday evening in Kingston as the Avalanche recorded a 3-0 win over West Kings. The two teams were scoreless after one period and a goal by rookie Adam Ferguson provided the Windsor school with a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes. Joe Beaton, also a rookie on this year's team, and Liam Kelley tallied third period goals.
Horton High 2, Avon View 1
The Avalanche had trouble making the short crisp passes and missed different opportunities right in front of the net when they took on Horton.
The Avalanche had no luck scoring, but applied immense pressure around the Horton net with a little more than eight minutes to go in the opening period. Horton had a five-on-three advantage for 58 seconds in the opening period, but also couldn’t come up with a goal.
The Avalanche, with 1:24 remaining in a Horton penalty, saw Keesh Such miss a dynamite scoring chance to the side of the Horton net. Kelley missed on a close-in backhand while Ferguson couldn’t connect on another fantastic opportunity as the Avalanche applied immense pressure once again.
Despite all this, the teams remained locked in a 0-0 tie until there was 5:35 left in the second period and 23 seconds left in an Avalanche penalty. That’s when Horton went ahead 1-0 on a nice wrist-shot from Lyam Curry from the blue line.
The score remained 1-0 entering the third period and stayed that way when Avalanche defender Liam Kelley was sent off for cross checking. Just as he was getting back into play, the Avalanche defense struggled severely in front of its own net and simply couldn’t clear the puck, allowing Horton to seize the opportunity and send a backhanded shot into the Avon View goal for a 2-0 lead.
The goal seemed to inject some life into the Avalanche as the team carried the play into the Horton net and for the second time on the evening swarmed all around it, but couldn’t buy a goal. The Avalanche finally pulled to within a single goal when Ferguson scored his second of the season on a belt-high wrist shot into the Horton net.
In the closing seconds of the game, the Avalanche had a desperate time clearing the puck out of its own end and as a result didn’t get any late game scoring chances.
