Sep 23, 2024 | Roy Hughes | 149 views
Exhibition Game Results
The U13 AA Belleville Bulls played 2 exhibition games in September against Kingston and Clarington. Both of those teams have finished 1st and 2nd place in the Lakeshore league for 2 consecutive years.
They faced Kingston first. K-town beat them out in the 2nd round of playoffs last year to move onto the OMHA "Red Hats" tournament and the loss still stings for the players that were there last year. Mathew Parsons opened the scoring on his first shift of the game after picking off a pass in the offensive zone and beating Kingston's goalie with a nice shot. Kingston answered a couple minutes later and there was no additional scoring until the 3rd period. The Bulls did a great job killing off a 4 minute penalty at the opening of the 3rd only to be scored on shortly after. The goal against deflated the Bulls and the momentum shifted to Kingston. Sloppy play in their own zone and the neutral zone led to 2 more goals against. Ryder Hayes gave the Bulls a chance to win in net but the final score was 4-1 in favor of Kingston.
The Bulls next exhibition game took them to Darlington to play the Clarington Toros. They haven't had luck in this rink in the past but after a week of practice and conditioning the Bulls came out energized and looked like a much faster team than the game previous. Bailey Allen opened the scoring with a nice deke after breaking by the defenders. Graham Lepoidevin got the assist on Allen's goal. Clarington tied it in the second but the Bulls pulled a goal ahead shortly after on a nice shot by Paisley Lapalm, assisted by Carson Rashotte. Clarington tied it before the end of the second and the game went back and forth until Charlie Burkitt scored for the Bulls while on a power play, assisted by Lapalm. Unfortunately the Bulls couldn't quite hold onto the lead and Clarington tied it 3-3 with a minute left in the game. Wes Leween was between the pipes for Belleville. The Bulls coach was pleased with the game as the team played much smarter than they did in their previous game.
Come out and support the Bulls this weekend as they play in a pre-season tournament on home ice. They open the tourney with another chance to take on their rivals Kingston, who won the tournament last year, at 9:15am @FDC.