The game was played at Vaal ice rink on Sunday afternoon. Wildcats had narrowly escaped defeat the previous week after being down 3 - 0 going into the final 20 min. This one would no doubt also be a tight affair. Last week however the Wildcats were without George Lyon, Chris Engelbrecht and Gary Bock who is out with a serious knee injury so with these players coming back Wildcats were definitely feeling confident.
The game started in typical fashion with chances on both ends of the rink. Marais opened the scoring after Engelbrecht gained the blue line and made a 15 meter pass to him in acres of space which Marais slotted into the 5 hole. Scorpions then hit back almost immediately with a goal from Damian Cordosa and the game continued in this fashion for the next 55 min with plenty of ebb and flow. With 10 minutes left to play and Scorpions leading the game by 2 goals it was do or die for Wildcats. The Wildcats goalie Steven Ryan came up big on more than one occasion and the team took advantage of the good fortune with 2 further goals by Marais and another by Burton Matthews. One of these 2 goals by Matthews was an absolute ripper from the hash marks which goalie Farrel Foy had no chance on. Grant van Eeckhoven played extremely well at centre for the Scorpions and won almost every face-off and showed good positional play throughout. For the Wildcats the older players didn't have their strongest games but managed to come out strong when it mattered. Ian Ashworth was his usual energetic self but the star of the match was Burton Matthews who played the game with a strapped wrist which was noticeably sore and very limiting.
Scorpions have had a tough time seeing out 2 games in a row against Wildcats but this is not to say that they haven't played well. If history is anything to go on then the Scorpions will come back stronger and more determined in the weeks to come.
Next week sees Warriors take on Scorpions at the Kollonade at 17:15.
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