Whalers U16AA Off To a Slow Start

The Whalers U16AA team couldn’t quite get their game in gear today as they faced off for two exhibition games down South against the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes Bantam AAA team.

GAME 1:

The first period started off with an early lead for the home team as the Cane’s Eric Webb found the back of the net 1:57 into the game.  Both teams spent plenty of time sitting as they evenly split twelve penalties between them.  Trevor Davis was able to fend off thirteen of the Cane’s fourteen shots while the Whalers put six on net to end the first stanza.

The second period was all Canes as they buried six goals from five different players; two from power plays, three even strength and the last coming in short-handed.  The Whalers were again outshot as the Canes fired off twenty to the Whalers eight.

The third period saw some life from the Whaler’s offense as both teams put two each on the board.  The first two were Whaler goals as Roman Degnan put one past the Cane’s goalie, Logan Halladay, from Ben Trainer at the 7:51 mark for a nice power-play goal.  The second came at 4:23 as Nico Degnan shot one in with an assist from Jonathon Jones.  The Canes put an end to the Whaler’s run as they chalked up two more with 2:18 and 1:19 remaining in the game.

The Cane’s goalie took the win (9-2) saving sixteen of the Whaler’s eighteen shots while Davis took the loss saving thirty-two of the Cane’s forty-one shots.

GAME 2:

Game two started off pretty evenly but the first period ended with the Whalers down 2-1.  Jonathon Jones would score what turned out to be the Whalers only goal from Ben Trainer with 4:31 on the clock.  The goal was hard fought with the pair working around the home team’s net to bury a short-handed goal past the Cane’s Mark Stallings.  The shot count for the first set had the Canes out shooting the Whalers 17-13.

Periods two and three were a defensive battle for the Whalers as they played short-handed against nine penalties.  The Canes were only able to capitalize on two of these power plays in the second period.  In this same period, the Whalers were able to successfully fight off a 5-on-3 as their penalty trouble continued.

This game ended a little closer as the Whalers suffered another loss going down 6-1 with the Whalers going to the sin bin for eleven more penalties than the Canes.  In between the posts for the Whalers was Kevin Whitbeck – saving forty-one of the Cane’s forty-seven shots.  Stallings was able to stop twenty-one of the Whaler’s twenty-two attempts.

For the Whalers, Joey Tarantino and Grant Phillips were missing from the action.  Tarantino will return tomorrow as the Whalers face off against the Raleigh Storm’s U16A team for two more exhibition matches.