Joe Boice scores first OJHL goal as crowd goes wild

By Alex Gallacher
The Haliburton County Huskies concluded their February with two straight losses coming at the hands of the Toronto Patriots and Trenton Golden Hawks on Friday and Saturday at the S.G Nesbitt Memorial Arena.

On Friday, the Toronto Patriots came to town looking to break a seven-game losing streak, while the Huskies looked to get back on the path of winning after taking down the Lindsay Muskies in their last home game.
The Patriots came out of the gate swinging. At the 6:48 mark Joseph Martino ripped a shot past Christian Linton to score the only goal of the period. The Huskies maintained the pressure but unfortunately couldn’t break through.
A scoring frenzy broke out during the second with five goals total scored, three for the Pats and two for the Huskies. After a bad bounce of the boards caught Linton out of position, Nolan Lowe buried the puck into the empty net to double the lead.
Ryan Forberg added two goals, with the first coming at 5:40 and the second at 14:05. Just like that, the Huskies found themselves down 4 to 0 on home ice. However, all hope wasn’t lost, as in the span of 30 seconds the Huskies added a pair of their own. Christian Stevens buried a beautiful shot past Robert Andreakos Jr., using a defensive screen to his advantage.
Then on the very next play, Patrick Saini added a goal of his own. Shooting around the net, and beating Andreakos. Sadly however, that would be the only two goals scored for the Huskies as McKay Hayes added an empty netter in the third to seal the 5 to 3 victory for the Patriots.

Despite outshooting the Pats 50 to 42, the Huskies recorded their fifth loss of the month.
The Huskies closed out the month of February with one more home game coming against the division-leading Trenton Golden Hawks. In an important match, the Huskies fell to third in the East as they were leap frogged by Wellington.
In similar fashion to the last game, the Huskies got off to a rocky start. Less than two minutes in, Jake Campbell scored after Kolby Poulin took a tripping penalty.
Trenton’s league-leading power play made no mistake to showcase why they are the league’s best. Four minutes later Matthew Cato buried a one timer from Justin Mauro past Christian Cicigoi to double the Hawks’ lead heading into the intermission.
Trenton’s Aiden MacIntosh added another goal around four minutes into the period. Following that goal, the Huskies had enough and clawed their way back.
First up, Peyton Schaly. Schaly took advantage of a Rajvir Sangha penalty to beat William Nguyen, to get the Huskies on the board after many attempts. Less than 30 seconds later, Lucas Stevenson buried an Oliver Tarr rebound to pull the Huskies within one.
Then, the goal heard around the county.

All season long, Boice has been a fan favourite, however a goal has been just out of reach. Tonight, the tables would turn.
Coming back from a one game suspension, Boice tipped in a shot by Haliburton’s Ryan Hall to tie the game and send the S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena into a frenzy. His first OJHL goal couldn’t have come at a better time. Despite the amazing second period by the Huskies, at the 1:10 mark and on the power play an errant pass from Cicigoi found its way onto the stick of Dalton Bancroft who made no mistake. Jake Campbell added his second of the night on the power play, to seal the deal for Trenton who went home with a 5 to 3 victory.
The Huskies will be on the road, visiting the St. Michael’s Buzzers on March 4 before returning home on March 8 to take on the North York Rangers. The Huskies will look to turn their season around in March, as the push for the playoffs continue.