Plattsville's big, Langton's quick
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Langton Lions novice hockey team gave up some size to Plattsville Monday night in Game 1 of their OMHA DD six-point semifinal playoff series at the Langton Arena.
Langton centreman Stefan Vandendriessche figured the best way to negate Plattsville’s height advantage was to use their speed and go around them.
“Well, it’s not that hard,” said Vandendriessche after a high-breaking 6-4 loss. “You just skate around them. It’s pretty easy.
“You have to be quick, but they’re so tall, they have longer legs and they can just stick their leg out and knock the puck away.”
The Lions’ gameplan involved dumping the puck deep and giving chase. It was effective at times in all three periods – Langton scored twice in a 2-2 first period, then added a second-period goal as Plattsville went up 5-3.
Michael Vanacker’s second goal of the game cut Plattsville’s lead to one with 9:21 left in regulation.
“We pulled our goalie at the end, then he (Cayuga’s T. Shantz) shot from outside the blue line and it hit the post, then it went in,” said Vandendriessche, who came close to scoring the equalizer in the final minute with a wrist shot from the slot after a nice three-way passing play.
“He put his foot out and it hit the edge of his foot.”
Aiming high was also important, said Lions’ Marek Vanacker.
“We’re trying to shoot them high. We know that their goalie, he’s only good at low shots. He’s not good at high shots.”
Marek’s brother Michael scored on a top-shelf shot with 2:16 left in the second period to make it 4-3 Cayuga.
Langton’s gameplan won’t change in Game 2 Saturday, March 2 in Plattsville (12 p.m.) or Game 3 back in Langton Sunday, March 3 at 6 p.m.
“Our coach says we have to skate really fast and we deke around the players,” said Marek. “And then, sometimes we noticed their goalie is not good at following our dekes. So we deke the goalie.”
“When we get over the red line we have to chip it in,” said Stefan.
“We have to shoot it right in,” agreed Marek. “Sometimes it’s pretty hard. You’ll get tired and sweaty and you’ll probably want a drink while you’re on the ice. But you can’t go off, sometimes, because the refs say we can’t come off or the other team can’t come off… when our coaches say that we have to change. Sometimes the refs say that we can’t change.”
“Instead of stickhandling through them we have to dump it in,” said Vandendriessche. “That’s how we scored one of our goals – he (Michael Vanacker) dumped it in and it went in the net. He shot it from outside the blue line and it went over the goalies blade and went in.”
“We got that one and then we got all fired up,” said Marek.
“Then they got the empty-netter,” Vandendriessche pointed out.
There was some frustration in the second period, Marek admitted, when they were trailing by a couple goals.
“We get angry and all that stuff,” he nodded.
Looking ahead to Game 2, the younger Vanacker said the Lions novices needed to skate fast, deke, and ‘do some hard shots.’
“Not flip shots, not flick shots. Maybe some high wristers, but none of those flick shots.”
Marek rated his own wrist shot as ‘hard.’
“My shot’s really hard and high. My brother Michael, he has a better shot. He’s got a better shot because he’s older than me and he’s practiced more than me.”
The Lions reached the DD semifinals beating out Norwich in the quarters. Langton won the first two in the six-point series, dropped Game 3 in overtime on home ice, then clinched it with a 4-0 win in Norwich.
Plattsville 6, Langton Lions 4
Lions scoring: 1. Nathan Lammens (Josh King); 2. Josh King (Jesse Reimer, Nathan Lammens); 3. Michael Vanacker (Brody Balazs, Jack Pettit); 4. Michael Vanacker.