Story posted Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Fremd Slushes Past Maine, 6-0
By STEPHEN GORDON Correspondent
High School hockey can be cruel to some teams. One moment, you are the toast of the local high school community, such as the Maine Township Maineiacs were when they finished second in the state in the combined division in last season's 2009 Blackhawk Cup.
The next moment, like in Sunday night's loss to Fremd 6-0 at Iceland Ice Arena in Niles, the Maineiacs took 17 penalties, causing coach Steve Glickman to be suspended for the team's next regular season game.
The Maineiacs did manage 20 shots on Fremd senior net minder Ryan Davie who was able to see and stop every shot he saw for his first shutout of the season.
"Discipline is probably the hardest thing to maintain in a game like this," Vikings coach Gary Mitchell said. "We had too many minor penalties ourselves (13) and that is something we still have to work on as a team."
However, something the Vikings did do well at was their passing as the team showed off for its fans who were in attendance. Numerous tape-to-tape passes by the visitors resulted in three first period goals, two of which were on man advantage situations.
Fremd took a 1-0 lead 12:22 left in the first when senior forward Eric Freeburg (2G, 1A) took a pass from line mate Jonathon Beening and beat Maineiacs goaltender Ben Wade from close range. They upped their lead to 2-0 with 2:40 left in the opening frame when Daniel Walter (2G, 1A) beat Wade also from close range. Just 19 seconds later, the Vikings Michael Azzaretto made it 3-0 when he scored off an assist from Walter.
"It was still two points for us tonight and that is really important for us now," Mitchell said. "We are headed into a tough stretch of games now with teams like Barrington and Crystal Lake Central coming up for us over the next couple of weeks leading into Christmas."
The middle period only saw one goal scored by the Vikings by Walter at the 9:01 mark of the period off an assist by Freeburg making the score 4-0.
"It was important for us to stick to our game plan and do well on our passing," Freeburg said. "The power play worked really well for us and what helps that is our passing and guys finding that open ice which we did."
Fremd scored their last two goals with 12:52 left in the third period by Beening making it 5-0. Freeburg would close out the scoring with 2:22 left, scoring a power play goal for the 6-0 advantage.
"For us now we are starting to turn things around in terms of being one of those teams that can be considered to be a team to watch," Freeburg said.
As for Maine Twp. coach Steve Glickman, all he could say as he walked out of the arena: "Boy, you picked a great game for us to watch tonight."
Ther Maineiacs made some better news two nights earlier with a 4-2 win over Guerin Prep.
MW goal scorers were Rob McCabe, assisted by Ethan Slopecki, John Rooney assisted by Justin Rickter and Pat Praxmarer, Andrew Kreatsoulous assisted by Scott Chapp and Praxmarer, and Jack Starzel, assisted by Joe Galiotto and Kreatsoulous.
Finally, five members of the Maineiacs have been selected to an area all-star team. They are Chapp, Rob Rogowski, Rickter, Matt Marcin, and Nic Justen, goalie.
Sled Hockey For Charity Sunday
The Maine Township Hockey Club will present its annual sled hockey game for charity at 6:30 p.m. this Sunday, Dec. 13, at Niles Iceland in Niles.
Guests are asked to bring canned goods or food items for donation to local food pantries.
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