I love this time of year. I know what you're thinking... "how can you love this time of year when it gets dark at 5:30?" And verily I say unto thee, we're knee deep in hockey season and loving it!
Actually, we're now about half way through the hockey season and teams are beginning to find their identity. They'll be able to use the upcoming holiday break to take a breath and reflect on what they have accomplished or in some cases, what they haven't accomplished. Hopefully, they come out ready to make a push in the new year. So in the spirit of reflection and self evaluation, before we get into this week's game, let's take a look at how I did last week.
For starters, I called the Columbus Icemen to get the win against the Zionsville Eagles in a barn burner, 6-5. Although the game wasn't a barn burner per se, Columbus did pull out the win, 3-2. The Eagles lead the Icemen 2-1 at the end of the second period but the Icemen had a strong 2 goal third period to get it done. AND as predicted, (cue dramatic throat clear) the Icemen's Noah Carlock had a first-star performance, with a goal and an assist to lead all skaters.
As for my other game, I picked the Junior Fuel to sweep Evansville in Evansville. I knew calling a sweep was a stretch but the Junior Fuel couldn't pull out a win, losing the first game and settling for a tie in the second. Sadly, that brings my prophetic record to 1-2 on the season.
One other thing to note if you recall, in last week's article, I pointed out that Evansville was an aggressive, physical team with three player suspensions already in the season. This weekend against the Jr. Fuel, they racked up their fourth game misconduct, resulting in player suspension, for a player refusing to leave the ice. This has bad overtones for Evansville and it's something they'll need to get their hands around before the holiday break.
Moving on to this week, as I sat down to look at Game of the Week considerations, I quickly realized it was slim pickin's. Although there's quite a bit of hockey happening this weekend, most of it is either out of state or tournament based. We have the Silver Stick youth hockey tournament happening in Fort Wayne as well as the South Bend Crossover Showcase tournament for high school teams. However, one game did catch my eye in the Crossover Showcase, being the Valpo Vikings vs. the Homestead Spartans.
I like this game because Valpo and Homestead are almost identical in their schedule results, INHockey.net rankings, and GF (goals for) column. The one difference being that Homestead has gotten a little beat up in their GAA (goals allowed average), thanks to division rivals Carroll and Leo, who have both posted double-digit-goal games against the Spartans.
This is a tough game to call just because you never know what the psychology of a tournament will do to a team over the course of the weekend. Both teams will have played three games by the time they square off on Sunday and it's possible one team could have caught fire over the weekend. Nonetheless, I'm sticking with my gut this time, and calling the Valpo Vikings to raid and pillage the Spartans, 4-2.
Player's to watch in this game are Valpo's Woody Weisler, who has 10 goals and 6 assists on the season and Homestead's Nic Hoy, who leads his team with 12 goals and 3 assists.
Valpo is my team this week and you heard it here first!
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