JT Busts the Dusters

WWGRD was in desperate need of a win on Friday afternoon, as the possibility of an 0-3 start was staring the boys right in the face. They once again came up against a team who was scheduled to play a UWIHL double-header, just like they did with the Warriors the night before. Also like the Warriors, the Dusters handily won their first game of the back-to-back set, to the tune of a 7-1 thumping of the Anglewood Jacks. With another short bench, WWGRD knew this game would be no cakewalk.

The boys in blue came out flying, knowing a fast start would be massive for them as they were yet to have held a lead at anytime during the season. Emergency call-up Brent Lozinsky picked up the puck in the defensive zone and made a duster defender look silly before dishing the puck up the wing to Cappy Marc Berthiaume, setting up a 2-on-1. With the defender staying strong in the middle of the ice, Captain Crunch just threw a hard low shot on net that found its way straight through the tendy's five hole, giving WWGRD the much desired 1-0 lead.

The story early on (and eventually throughout the entire game) was the stellar play of WWGRD net minder, Johnny Tracey. JT was turning away everything the Dusters had to throw at him early, protecting the 1-0 lead at the half for everyone's favourite UWIHL team.

It was during one shift in the second half that Cappy Crunch turned a good game into a career game. With the puck dumped into the Duster zone (on a play that some onlookers wonder why icing wasn't called), the Macedonian Menace won the battle down low and threw the puck out front to a streaking Marc Berthiaume. After stretching to receive the pass, Big Bert once again simply tossed a hard shot on net that found its way passed the Duster tendy on the low-blocker side and doubled the WWGRD lead. Only seconds later, with a Duster defenceman holding the puck in his own zone, El Capitano applied pressure and picked off the attempted outlet pass. As he was barreling down on the Duster tendy, he was tripped by the defender and fell to his knees. He maintained composure and reached for the puck from his knees and was able to pop it passed a sprawling Duster tendy, marking his first career UWIHL hatty.

JT stood on his fucking head the entire
game and earned his first career shutout
and WWGRD player of the game honours

The 3-0 lead was more than enough for the man of the hour, JT. The Woodslee Wall turned aside breakaway after breakaway, rebound after rebound and simply had an answer for everything the Dusters were throwing at him. The team hopped the boards and celley'd with JT when his first career UWIHL shutout became official. As Dylan Berthiaume said after the game, "Given the amount of shots and chances they had, we could have lost this game and it wouldn't have been Johnny's fault at all."

"Well you only one gino when you have a goalie that comes out and plays like that for the boys," Marc Berthiaume told reporters after the game when they asked about his first career hat-trick. He then added, "we've been working hard these last few games, going in the tough areas and muckin', and today we benefitted from our hard work out there."

On a more solemn note, this was the last game behind the bench for WWGRD bench-boss Dylan Turnbull, who will be returning to his temporary placement in Peterborough before the boys hit the ice again (FUCK THE PETES!!!). He addressed the media before departing the rink after today's game, saying "I thought that the boys really rallied with a short bench today and picked each other up out there to get that big first W. Johnny played incredible between the pipes and we really came together out there." He was asked about his overall impression of the first three games of the year and said, "through the first few games we were just getting the rust off, and we expect the top performance from each player from this point on in the season."

The boys have some time off to recover from a busy week, as there is no date set for the team's next game yet. They will be looking to carry the momentum of this victory into their next few games to get that record back up above five hundo. Jerseys and other swag is available at the team store at the arena. This week only, memorabilia from the two milestones reached today, including a silent auction for the towel Marc Berthiaume used for his post-game shower after his first career hat-trick and the piece of Pro-Wrap that JT had on under his bucky during his first career shutout.