The Maple Leafs Continue to Roll in League Play
The Mass Maple Leafs
remain as one of two teams to stay unbeaten in Continental Hockey Association
League Play
as they improved to a 5-0 with a weekend sweep of the Virginia Express. The Maple Leafs defeated the Express 5-0 on Saturday night and continued its efforts Sunday morning with a 7-3 victory. Despite missing defensemen Robert Berg for the matchup on Saturday night, the Maple Leafs exuded their best team defense of the season limiting the Express to 23 shots in the game. St. Louis, Missouri native Caleb Holder made all 23 stops earning his first shutout of the season. The Maple Leafs got on the board early when Ben Brouillard potted home the goal that would eventually turn out to be the game winner 1:31 into the first period. C.J. Cordeiro earned the assist on the play. A little over midway through the 1st period, the Maple Leafs would double their lead. This Drew Desrosiers would score, assisted by Jason Alera and Riley Hess. The Maple Leafs would be stymied by the Express defense, led by goaltender Boyd Zinger who made 37 saves on the night, until the 4:34 mark of the 3rd period. It was then the Maple Leafs would again double their lead to 4-0 scoring two goals in 14 seconds. Karl Poss scored the first one from Hess and defensemen Eben Crandall. Crandall would get the next one just seconds later assisted by Brouillard. Brouillard and Crandall would add another assist to their stat page as they helped Cordeiro add the final goal of the game to make it 5-0. Sunday Morning saw 1-1 game going into the 2nd period when the Maple Leafs struck for six goals in the next 28 minutes of gameplay to go up 7-1. The Express would tack on two more to make the score a little more reasonable at 7-3. Eben Crandall and Robert Berg led the way with 3 points each (Berg 2-1-3, Crandall 0-3-3). Rhode Island native Nick Matiello added a goal and an assit, and Bret Zimmerman added two assists in the win. Matt Cray made 14 saves on 16 shots in 54 minutes of work to earn the league victory. Through five league games the Maple Leafs are paced by Riley Hess (2-9-11), Karl Poss (8-2-10), Nick Matiello (7-3-10), and Eben Crandall (1-8-9). Caleb Holder has a 1.50 GAA and .944 Save Percentage. Matt Cray has a respectable 2.56 GAA and .918 Save Percentage. Up next for the Maple Leafs is a two game set at the New Hampshire Monarchs Showcase where they will take on the New England Huskies Empire Team and the Atlanta Knights MET League Team on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The Massachusetts Maple Leafs would also like to make a few announcements. In addition to being on Twitter, the Maple Leafs are now on Facebook. These two media tools allow the organization to reach out to more individuals regarding the hockey program, and it also gives fans a chance to be more interactive with the program. Information including photos and news updates will be provided on the facebook page. If you wish to become a fan on facebook, the Maple Leafs can be found under Massachusetts Maple Leafs Hockey Club. The Maple Leafs have also started a new fundraising initiative. The new program is designed to reach out to the community, in addition to family and friends of the organization. The initiative is named the Dollar Donation Program and is designed to reach out to individuals that will not break their bank in the down economy. Monies raised will be put towards the acquiring of team equipment including pant shells, gloves, sticks, and helmets. The Maple Leafs are excited about the prospects of this new initiative and have already seen positive contributions coming to the team. Lastly, the Maple Leafs organization is pleased to announce the creation of the Maple Leaf Hall of Fame. The first induction into the Hall of Fame will be made in the spring. Alumni weekend, which will host this event, is tentatively scheduled for March 5-7. The Maple Leafs will host a Hall of Fame induction dinner on Friday, March 5th for the prestigious first class. On Saturday, March 6th, the Leafs will have an alumni game prior to the organizations final league games against the Philadelphia Blazers. Following the alumni game, will be a banner raising ceremony for the inductees. The Maple Leaf organization is proud of its former members and wishes to recoginze those whose sacrifices paved the way for more players to have an opportunity to play in the red, white, and black. More information regarding this event will be forthcoming as the date gets closer. For more information about the Massachusetts Maple Leafs and its hockey program go to: www.massmapleleafs.com. |