With the a large crowd filling the stands, parents, grandparents, neighbors, school friends, sponsors and even some Dawgs were waiting to get their first look at the BMO Hurricanes. Before we could get things underway two very special guests Laura Charlton, District Vice President BMO for Nova Scotia and Mary Ann Crowell, BMO Commercial Account Manager had a very pleasant surprise for our young players. In fact, there were 10,000 reasons the boys should be excited. A jaw dropping commitment from BMO made the home opener that much more special and added to the butterflies starting to flutter as the anthem played.
With the ceremonies completed the BMO Hurricanes soon realized it was show time…anything new for the opener?… nope… same old thing; hard work, team play and commitment to each other would be the recipe for success.
Play started a bit slow through the first but as the Hurricanes started to roll the butterflies scattered and once again the shots started to come. Goaltending was not the Dawgs problem as Roland Obrien was doing a great job holding the line.
Finally at 8:29 of the second Jollimore (Christian Tufts, Cooke) fired a blast from the point on the power play to allow fans to take their first breath. Just eight seconds later Dartmouth answered by taking advantage of a bad bounce on a pass that just caught the net to change direction into an opportunistic Furey (Clarke) to bring the score even. Any thoughts of a canteen run would have to wait with the fry guys put on standby.
You know it’s just not right to spoil a home opener and the Hurricanes would not have it as they continued to fire shots from everywhere. Another point shot by Lunn (Jollimore, Shatford) as he battled to keep the puck in at the point was just what the doctor ordered as it handcuffed the Dawgs goaltender. Shortly thereafter, streaking down the left wing, Ty Duffus(Mann, Christian Tufts) found the inside of the far post on a perfectly placed shot over the pad but under the glove to extend the lead to 3-1. With a final marker coming from Cooke (Duffus, Shatford) on the power play midway in the third the home opener turned into another strong outing for the hurricanes.
The Ice Dawgs battled hard on a warm fall afternoon but just didn’t have enough bite today. The BMO Hurricanes top off the home opener in front of a huge crowd with a 4-1 win.
GrayJay Sports
Western Hurricanes