East Alton-Wood River hockey team turns in big effort against Columbia
EAST ALTON – East Alton-Wood River's hockey team turned in what their coach, John Helmkamp, felt was a big effort against Columbia, considered the best team outside of Edwardsville in the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association, Monday night.
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Unfortunately for the Oilers, the Eagles took advantage of some bad breaks and held off the Oilers 4-2 at East Alton Ice Arena.
“It was a good step in the right direction for us, actually,” Helmkamp said. “This is the second-best team in the league; they've only lost one game and, other than a empty-net goal, it was a one-goal game, so we're very pleased.
“We want to win, of course, but this is a good step in the right direction for us.”
A bit of undisciplined play cost the Oilers, Helmkamp felt. “We got a little undisciplined in the middle of the game and that gave them some power plays,” Helmkamp said. “The one that we took put them back up 2-1. We can't do that. We talked about that and we'll get that fixed up for the next (game).”
After a scoreless first period, the Eagles got on the board first when Jarrett Allscheid found Cole Graves with a feed, which he tucked in behind Tyler Hamby with 8:22 left in the second to put Columbia ahead. Jacob Vassos tied it up with 2:37 left in the period when he got a pass from Cole Ford and knocked it home past Josh Stuart to even the game at 1-1.
Right at the end of the second period, however, a scrum in front of the Eagle goal didn't turn out well for the Oilers; Vassos was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Eagles made EA-WR pay for it when Trey Walton scored unassisted with 12:47 left in the third to put them ahead 2-1. Christopher Wagner then extended the lead with 10:34 left when he beat Hamby to make it 3-1 in Columbia's favor.
Undaunted, the Oilers pulled to within a goal with 5:42 to go when Nolan Royse fired a shot that got past Stuart's stick side and into the net, with Jacob Disher getting the assist. The Oilers tried to find a way to get the tying goal, even pulling Hamby in the final minute for a sixth attacker, but Sean Hofstetter fired a shot that went the length of the ice and into the EA-WR goal to seal the game with 29.7 seconds left.
Columbia had 34 shots to EA-WR's 26, with Hamby making 30 saves for the Oilers and Stuart making 24 saves for the Eagles.
EA-WR bounces right back into action at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday when they meet up with Highland at East Alton.
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