Anticipation was high and the crowds were buzzing this past weekend as the Keewatin Place Blues atom team prepared to play their Moms in the annual Mom’s Game Classic at the Kenora Recreation Centre.
Having never won the annual event, the Mom’s recruited some ‘ringers’ this year from the disbanded former Soviet Republics and held secret practices at an undisclosed location in the weeks leading up to the big game.
Grammy Award winner Celine Dion and KBI poster-boy Curtis Scott performed the national anthem in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Rec. Centre and soon after, it was game on. The Moms came out physical right away and took numerous penalties in the first few minutes, allowing the Blues to jump to an early 2-0 lead on powerplay markers. Leslie Scottovski and Nancy Proutovich (a.k.a. the Hansen sisters) led the gooning early on dropping everything that moved in the neutral zone.
The Moms’ soon regrouped and clawed their way back to a 2-2 tie by switching to a dump and chase game, but more gooning led to a penalty shot being awarded to the Blues young sniper Tyler Pahpasay. The young first-year player executed an ‘Ovechkin-Like’ move and put the Blues up once again 3-2 early in the second as the fog horn sounded and the crowd went in a frenzy. The team traded goals and as the third period began the Blues held a slim 4-3 lead.
“I was expecting things to get physical again”, said Blues coach Dan Reynard. “The Mom’s were pressing hard and gaining momentum throughout the game. We decided at that point to keep the puck away from the Mom’s who knew how to skate”. The teams traded goals and elbows throughout the third and the Moms continued to rack up more penalties, including their goaltender being sent to the box for a questionable offsides call.
With only a couple minutes left, the Blues were protecting a thin 6-5 lead on a late goal by Brandon Scott. But the Moms were pressing hard and preparing to pull the goalie when young Andrew Neil broke through the line of scrimmage towards the net but was mauled by the Moms’ defensive line. “It was a classic Keewatin two-hander that finally brought him down”, said referee Paul Beckerton. “I had to call a penalty shot…. I haven’t seen lumber flying like that since Cheryl Stefanski played last year!”
With time running thin, the young Blues’ defenseman took the puck from centre and beared down on the Mom’s goalie. As he drew closer, he froze the goalie with a fake wrist shot to the five-hole, then deked, skated around and slid the puck under the diving goalie to secure a 7-5 win for the Blues! The crowd roared as the final seconds ticked away the Blues maintained the undefeated streak in the annual classic.
