Pinedale High School Hockey plays in Cody
by Craig Sheppard
January 18, 2005
Last weekend, January 15th & 16th, the Pinedale high school age hockey team traveled to Cody to resume Wyoming Amateur Hockey League (WAHL) action. They were to face Gillette in an 8 AM Sunday game followed by a meeting with Cody at 11:30 the same morning.
Faced with a shortage of players on the bench, it looked like the Glaciers were going to have a long morning. They were to play with only one extra player, they had 6 players and a goalie make it to these games. Undaunted, they started out hard and fast and kept it up through all six periods they played. They knew they could not take any dumb penalties or do anything that would take any extra effort or they would not make it through both games.
Gillette scored the first two goals of the game, but Jake Hunt for Pinedale came back with only 39 seconds to go in the period and scored an unassisted goal to bring the game within one goal. In the second period Drew Guenther scored two goals only 2 minutes apart, the last goal assisted by Josh Murphy, to bring the Pinedale team up by 1. Then the two teams started trading goals Jake Hunt assisted by Josh Murphy scored Pinedale’s 4th goal and Drew Guenther scored another unassisted goal to complete his hat trick to put Pinedale up by one. With only a minute and 29 seconds left to go in the game, Gillette managed to hold the puck in the zone by inches, avoiding an offside, and attacking again scoring the tieing goal. Final score was Gillette 5 – Pinedale 5. Chris Manning had another good game in goal for the Glaciers facing 31 shots.
One hour later Cody was poised to beat up on what they thought would be a very tired Pinedale team. They had 15 players to our six. Pinedale’s Nate Olsen scored first with an assist by John Colton. Cody scored to tie the game up going into the end of the first period. Then the two teams also started trading goals. Cody went up by one early in the second period, but Nate Olsen scored his second goal of the game assisted by Jake Hunt to tie the game up. Cody scored, but then Preston Schwab broke away for an unassisted goal to tie it up again. Only 48 seconds into the third period, Cody scored to go ahead, but then Pinedale’s Jake Hunt scored assisted by Preston Schwab to tie the game up for the final time. With over 10 minutes left to go in the game, Cody thought they had a tired Pinedale team on the ropes. Both teams played really hard all the way to the end of the game and Pinedale had a last 30 second flurry in front of the Cody net, but couldn’t knock the winning goal in. The score ended Cody 4 – Pinedale 4. Chris Manning had 35 shots on him during this game.
Pinedale’s kids played hard and clean throughout these two games. They were commended by coaches, players, referees and the other team’s parents on how well they played with only a few players. Not to mention that all of these players this weekend for Pinedale are only freshmen and sophomores in high school. They are improving every game and look forward to four games in Riverton this next weekend against Cody, Riverton, Casper and Sheridan.
Players for Pinedale were Chris Manning, Drew Guenther, Preston Schwab, Josh Murphy, Nate Olsen, John Colton and Jake Hunt. They are coached by Jeff Lewis, Craig Sheppard and Mike Schwab.
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