Wednesday, January 3, 2007 · Page 15 73's pick up two wins CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Tanner Gallant notched the winner, standing on the doorstep and cashing in on a perfect pass from Rob Shepley at 10:49. With two minutes remaining it looked like Dresden was about to tie this one up, with Chad aroche left all alone ehind Ryan Barnett, but he puck took a crazy ounce and stayed out of the et. "This was a huge win for s, being short bodies and ll," said Dan Croft. "After hey jumped into the early lead the coaches talked about staying out of the box, and it seemed to work. We showed heart tonight, we never felt we were out of the game." "After the first we realized we needed to stay out of the box," added R.J. Hotts. "As five on five we are hard to beat. After falling behind we kept it simple, played solid defense, and, in the end, our perseverance showed." Essex will have the Alvinston Flyers in town Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Novice A Drs Hager/Kniaziew On Dec. 22 the Ravens entertained Riverside in Essex for the last game prior to Christmas. Essex struck first at 7:20 when Brett Schmidt set up in the corner and sent a nice feed to Jared Fuerth who was all alone in front of the net to put the team up 1-0. At 5:54 Brady Rickeard weaved in and out of the Riverside defense and found the top shelf, putting the Ravens up 2-0. Riverside scored late in the first to come within one goal. But a game that started out great ended not so great as the Riverside offense hammered away to finish the game 6-2. After Christmas, the team was a late entry in the Hospice tournament. The first game was held in Tecumseh on Dec. 27 and the first opponent was once again Riverside. Unlike the week before, Essex carried the play throughout this game and scored first on a goal by Carly Davison assisted by Jake Watters. Riverside answered a few seconds later and the first ended 1-1. Midway through a powerplay, Essex went up again 2-1 early in the second on a goal from Nash Prieur assisted by Jake Maisonneuve. Riverside again tied the game but Essex went up late in the second on a goal by Jake M., assisted by Brady and John Chittle. Riverside would not give up and tied the game again midway through the third but at 4:43 Brett scored on a pass from Dylan to regain the lead. The game looked to be locked up, but with only 30 seconds left Riverside snuck in to tie the game that would end 4-4. The second game of the tournament was held in Forest Glade on Dec. 28 against Tecumseh. The first period ended in an uneventful 0-0 tie. Tecumseh scored first on the powerplay at Atom AE Ram Contract Carriers Friday, Dec. 22 the Ravens played a home game against the Tecumseh Eagles. The Ravens opened the scoring early. Just 13 seconds into the game Zack Prentice put a hard shot past the goalie. The Ravens' defense took over and kept the Eagles off the scoreboard until two minutes left in the period. Another quick goal by Tecumseh finished the period 2-1 in favour of Tecumseh. Tecumseh scored two more quick goals in the second period but the boys wouldn't be denied. Carder Sherk carried the puck into the Tecumseh zone and burned the puck for an unassisted goal. The score after the second period was 4-2 Tecumseh. Tecumseh scored one more goal in the third period and the Ravens answered right back with a goal of their own scored by Zack unassisted. The final score was Tecumseh 5, Essex 3. Thanks to Devon Renaud for being an AP player in net. Saturday the Ravens travelled to Wheatley to play Southpoint. The game turned out to be a very physical game right from the start. Southpoint opened the scoring and the Ravens answered right back with a goal of their own scored by Tyler St. Pierre assisted by Colton Kitchen. The score after the first period was Southpoint 3, Essex 1. The second period showed more physical play between both teams and Southpoint put two more goals in our net. Alex Smith came up as an AP player and drove hard to the net and made no mistake for the Ravens' second goal, unassisted. Southpoint managed three more goals in the third period but, in typical Ravens style, the players never gave up and scored another goal by Zack assisted by Alex Stevenson. The final score Southpoint 8, Essex 3. 7:23 of the second to go up 1-0. Tecumseh went on to score two more to go up 3-0, but Brady ruined the shutout bid scoring an unassisted goal with 2:42 left in the third. At the buzzer the Ravens went down 3-1. The third and final game was played that same night in Amhersburg against the Chatham `B' Maroons. Essex played most of this game around the Chatham net. At 4:34 of the first Dylan Dent broke in and easily found the back of the net, 1-0. This followed with Brett and Jared getting the puck to Dylan who pushed a nice backhander under the sprawling Chatham netminder, 2-0. Chatham pulled to within one at 5:17, 2-1. At 3:22 this line would score again as Dylan took a pass from Jared to notch his hatrick! Less than 30 seconds later it was Jared's turn to score with assists from Dylan and Brett. This time it would take only 16 seconds for Brendan Jones to score assisted by Josh Amyotte. (Nice to have you back Brendan!) At 5:23 Carly got the puck to the goal line with a hard shot that was tapped in by Jake M., 6-1. At 2:41 Johnny Chittle broke in on the net and scored assisted by Grant Quinlan. Brady would round out the scoring with 1:13 left, assisted by Luke Mahon. This was uncharted waters as the team found themselves on the winning end of an 8-1 blowout. Congratulations to Josh Scratch and Adam Amicarelli who both continue to make key saves throughout every game. On Dec. 30 Tilbury hosted an exhibition game. Tilbury struck first in the first period but at 4:30 Jake M. slipped one past the Tilbury goalie assisted by Brady. Tilbury came right back to go ahead 2-1. After no scoring in the second, Jake M. carried the puck in, took a shot and scored on his own rebound to tie the game. Brett scored the game-winning goal with a great shot at 6:51 and Adam denied a Tilbury breakaway with 2:30 remaining in the third. All the best in 2007! OPP release RIDE statistics Bantam A Essex Source for Sports On Saturday, Dec. 23 the boys took it to LaSalle with a solid 4-1 win to kick start the holidays. Colin Delaet started things off at 9:09 with a great shot from the left slot assisted by Tony Spidalieri. With two minutes left in the first, Alex Thomson broke out from behind his net, hit Ty Queen with a tape-to-tape pass who went deep, and in the scrum Ryan Morris slammed it home. 2-0 after one. The second period saw Queenie use his size and reach to slip one home assisted by Lyle Little and Jesse Amyotte. The third period action saw almost a repeat of the second goal with Ryan Morris finding the netting with a nice wristshot, assisted by Queenie and Thomson. Great team effort boys! Keep it up! CNW The highway safety division of the Ontario Provincial Police released R.I.D.E. statistics Dec. 28, for the fourth week of the festive season's driving initiative, for all OPP jurisdictions in the province. From Dec. 20 to 26 a total of 165,929 vehicles were checked at roadside checkpoints. A total of 156 12hour suspensions were issued and 70 persons were charged with alcohol related driving offences, an increase of two from the same period in 2005. For the first four weeks of the R.I.D.E. campaign, a total of 648,137 vehicles were checked compared to 437,230 in the same period of 2005. Persons charged with impaired driving offences for the same four weeks have increased from 232 in 2005 to 289 in 2006. A total of 658 - 12 hour suspensions have been issued so far in the 2006 campaign compared to 537 in 2005. The program ended Jan. 2. CARPENTRY SERVICES Specializing in Kitchens & Bathrooms and all your interior & exterior needs. STEVE WOJTALA 519-687-3955 · Comber, Ontario E-mail: with your comments at: essexfreepress@on.aibn.com