FTLComm - Melfort - October 28, 1999
A regular mid week league game for the Centre Four league with Tisdale at Melfort. Melfort's great Sports Palace makes even a fair crowd look small and gobbles up the sound but the action was on the ice.

Tisdale Bantam "AA" Ramblers and Melfort "AA" Mustangs had a rather ponderousfirst period with a scoreless tie and one Melfort penalty. Tisdale's team is known for their skating tended to slow down to the dowdy pace set by their hosts. Melfort's defense are good sized players and rely more on their presence then their footwork but that was effective in the five penalties they took in the game shutting out the Rambler's power play.

Though the play was in Melfort's end almost all of the first and more then half of the second period the low score was to the credit of Melfort's astute goalie who is one of those stand up type goal tenders who keeps his position and his eyes
never leave the puck. We suspect that the programme was in error and so we do not have the name of this good player.

On the far right is the scene as Tisdale scores its first goal in the second period. Mitch Sochaski, from the point clips the goalies blocker, then a goal post to land the puck in the back of the net. Goal two was one of
those constant pressure goals where the aggressive Rambler forwards kept plugging away and Melfort maintained their positional play and in time the aggressor always scores. The moment of the goal is seen on the right.

Melfort's first goal came in the second period with Tisdale being a little slow footed in their own end and Jordan Tait recovered the puck behind the goal line and with the assistance of Tyson Strachan made the score 2 -1. (Below)

Rambler defenseman Paul Caughlin early in the third period moved behind his net and a superior heads up play saw either Tait or Strachan snap Paul's stick, the puck was in the net for the tying goal. In the picture below right Paul is on the far right.

It was Mitch Sochaski who put in the winning goal in the third. Mitch received a tidy pass at the blue line and zeroed in on the goalie who stood his ground and Mitch came right the crease before he flipped the puck. In the picture on the right you can see the goal judge leading over to see the puck dribble in and after a brief discussion with the referee it was ruled a goal and that was the end of the scoring for the night. In the last twenty seconds of play Melfort went to six attackers but Tisdale sent brought the puck down ice and it was all over.

Five penalties to Melfort and two to Tisdale and one coinciding minor making it a straightforward game. The Ensign three star selection gave its number three star to Tisdale defenseman Paul Caughlin for three of the most skilled checks in the game. Caughlin is a controlled hockey player and when he is on the ice assumes that his name is on the puck, his checks are smooth and do what a body check is designed to do take the player out of the play. It is one of those checks that is on the top of this page.

Number two star goes to the Melfort goalie which was likely Nathan Espedal who kept the score to nil in the first let in two in the second and one in third and not one of them was a result of anything but excellent play.

The Number one star is reserved for Mitch Sochaski with two goals and excellent defensive play through the game.

For more pictures go to the "Second page".