The St.John’s Senior Caps doubled down on their opponents, winning 4-2 over the Harbour Grace CeeBee Stars at the Mary Brown's Centre on November 8th.
It was the second win in their four-game series against the Harbour Grace team, which always gives every opponent more than they can handle.
Mike Dyke, Head Coach of the Senior Caps, said it was a solid game where he felt his team gave a full 60-minute effort.
“I felt in the first period we were going back and forth a little bit, feeling each other out. But everyone in our room stepped up a notch when the CeeBees took a 2 to 1 lead in the second period. And never looked back. It’s always nice to see that energy from your team when you go down a goal.”
In the game, the Caps struck early on the powerplay when captain Kyle McGrath scored on a setup by Joel Bishop and Matthew McKim to give the Caps a 1-0 lead. Their lead was cut short two minutes later when the CeeBee's Luke Akerman tallied to tie the game in the first period.
CeeBees Brett Shute gave his team a go-ahead goal in the second period. But the Caps dug deep for the rest of the period, with goals from Paul Norman and Mark Rumsey and a second power-play goal in the third by Bishop to secure the Caps' lead and win 4-2. The Caps Bishop and Kyle McGrath each scored a goal and assisted, and five players, including McKim, Kyle McGuirk, Brandon Knight, Ryan Walsh, and Rumsey, each had helpers in the win.
Dyke thought special teams played well, not just scoring two powerplay goals in the opening and third periods but also on the penalty kill, keeping the CeeBees off the score sheet after the second period, which wasn’t easy.
“They're a scrappy young team. They have a young core of players with a lot of skill and speed up front, which is hard to handle. On the other side, we tried to pressure their defense as much as possible, make it hard on them, to try to create turnovers from our forecheck.”
In the game, Dyke paired brothers Kyle and Mark Rumsey together, which he thought made a difference in the game.
“Kyle is a dog for the puck. He's hard on the forecheck. He makes it tough for a defenseman to move the puck and creates turnovers. For him and Tanner Humber-Dredge to use their speed on the forecheck and find Mark in the open areas can be a dangerous combination.”
Dyke also praised Ceebee's goaltender Tristan Gray who he felt played a strong game despite the Cap's 34 shots on net.
“I haven't seen him play in a while, and that was the Tristan Gray of old. There was a good portion of the game where I felt like we were beating the door down, but we couldn't buy one. Part of me felt like it would be one of those games where we would have a tough time trying to score, but we ended up squeaking a couple. But he played great.”
The Senior Caps have two games left before the Christmas break. They play the Southern Shore Breakers on Thursday, December 12th, and then finish 2024 against the CeeBee Stars on Saturday, December 14th, at the Danny Cleary Community Centre. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
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