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Wednesday, November 29, 2006 · Page 19 Atom A Forest Machine Friday, the Ravens faced off against the Amherstburg Stars in Essex. The last time these two teams met the Ravens claimed the victory, and the Stars were hungry for a rematch. The first period was marked by end to end action with neither team catching a goal until Amherstburg slipped one in with less than two minutes on the clock. Dillon Jarvis, William Wuerch and A.J. Market repeatedly cut through the Stars' defense in the second period, but all shots were denied by the Amherstburg goalie. Late in the second, Amherstburg snagged another goal to pull ahead by two. Trailing heading into the third, Essex hit back hard. Strong defensive play by David Stafford and Derek Morris kept the puck in the Stars' zone, while Adam Zanier and Jordan Hooker battled to put Essex on the scoreboard. A penalty midway through the third left Essex a man short, but superb goaltending by Josh Myers held the Stars at bay. Final score 2-0 Amherstburg. The Ravens faced the Chatham Maroons twice on the weekend, first in an away game Saturday and on home ice Sunday. Saturday's game saw Chatham hit hard, catching a goal in the opening minutes of the first period. Essex responded with some outstanding goaltending by netminder Kyle Hill and strong defensive action by Sean Santarossa and Jeffery Miller. Seconds into the third, Mitchael "Salty" Salter caught a pass from David Stafford and hit the mesh to put the Ravens on the scoreboard. Minutes later Essex jumped ahead 2-1 when Jonah Fuerth, assisted by A.J. Market, fired one top shelf. The lead proved to be shortlived, as Chatham tied it up at the 11:36 mark. Midway through the third, Chatham scored again to pull ahead 3-2. Although Essex battled valiantly to tie it up, they just couldn't catch a piece of the net. Final score 3-2 Chatham. It was another exciting game Sunday, as Chatham again snagged a goal early in the first. Essex answered within seconds, as Brett Rickeard nailed one home to tie it 1-1. Netminder Josh Myers was forced to make some great saves to hold Chatham to one throughout the first. The Maroons caught three more goals in the second to pull ahead 41, but Brett Rickeard fired in another goal to cut Chatham's lead to two. The third saw Mitchell Hudvagner and Jonah Fuerth fight to force the play into the Maroons' zone. With five minutes left in play, they were rewarded when Fuerth roofed the puck to slice the Maroons lead to one. Chatham battled hard to strengthen their lead, but goalie Kyle Hill denied all shots. With six seconds on the clock, Jordan Hooker stole the puck and fired a hard, high shot, but it was blocked. An exciting game to the very end! Final score Chatham 4 - Essex 3. Atom AE Ram Contract Carriers The Ravens hosted an exhibition game against Tilbury on Saturday and what an exciting game. The Ravens were very hyped up for this game and came out to win and that is what they did. The first goal came at the end of the first period when Gerard Busko accepted a pass from Danielle Dent and Zack Prentice and dumped one in the net. This ended the first period 1-1. Tyler St. Pierre opened up the second period scoring his first goal of the game assisted by Zack. Clay Kraynack rushed the puck out of our end, sending it flying to Zack who gave it to Busko giving them their third goal. Soon after Carder Sherk sent the puck to Aidan Garant who took a shot and Anthony Iacobini picked up the rebound and got his first goal of the year. Nice work Anthony! Danielle Dent played an awesome defensive game like always but it didn't end there for her. She scored an unassisted goal for us finishing the second period in the lead 5-1. Tilbury came into the third period scoring two goals on us in the first five minutes but we didn't back down. Zack took the puck and passed it over to Busko who shot it at the goalie and scored his hattrick. Congrats Busko! Eric Rawlins fought for the puck and passed it out to Tyler St. Pierre who scored his second goal of the game. Kane Gagnon did an awesome job in net and saved a lot of shots. Thank you to A.P. Alex Smith for helping us out and playing a great game. The Ravens took a lot of hard hits and win or lose the players work hard, don't quit and show awesome sportsmanship. Final score 7-3 Essex. Sunday we played against the Windsor Junior Spitfires. The Spitfires came off the draw and took a shot on net in the first 10 seconds but Emily Cressman saved this goal. But Windsor was unable to save the goal Zack laid on them 10 seconds after that. Windsor answered back. Aidan flew down the ice with the puck with Anthony by his side who once again scored for us his second goal this weekend. Despite fabulous defense from Clay and Luke, Matt and Alec and Danielle and Colton, Windsor racked up a few goals ending the first period 4-2. The Ravens showed awesome efforts and worked like a team. In the second period Eric Rawlins was in the corner fighting for the puck and dished it in front of the net where Cody Cooper was waiting for the pass and scored his first goal of the season. Way to go Cody! Period ending 6-3 Windsor. In the third period the Ravens took some awful hits landing four Windsor players in the box at one time. Busko took advantage of this time and scored off a pass from Matt Zelko who scored his second goal of the game. Windsor was able to score on us three more Skate Essex recently held its first test day for the 2006-2007 season. Katie Dunmore, pictured left, was successful in achieving her Gold Level Dances. Other successful students were: Anita Marinelli, Quick Step Dance and Junior Bronze Skills; Lyndsay Hamelin, Starlight Dance; Meghan Beutler, Willow Dance; Kiana Flood, Baby Blues Dance; and Casslyn Heil, Preliminary Freeskate. times finalizing the game at 9-5. The Atom AE team has come a long way and played a great game of hockey. This is obvious just by the number of unrelated fans who come to watch. The Ravens appreciate their town support. This Friday we play Tecumseh at 7 p.m. at home, on Saturday in Amherstburg at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday in Belle River at 3 p.m. Bantam AE Facca Construction Saturday, November 25 the Ravens headed to Tecumseh to face the Eagles. The Eagles came out skating hard and taking the play to Essex. Alex Rawlins made some great saves to keep the Eagles off the score sheet. The Ravens' coaches knew they had to get the boys to play harder. At the 5:05 mark of the first period Phil Friesen got the Ravens on the board with a hard shot on the Eagles' goalie. Happy birthday Phil! At the end of the first it was 1-0 Ravens with the pen even at two a piece. In the second period the Ravens worked harder cycling the puck and getting more chances. Good passing from Sky Janisse, Awstin Pettit, Matt McGuire, Chris Laliberte and Andrew Wellwood. Great penalty killing from the Ravens' Luke McCarthy, Al Merryfield and Matt Conley. At the 1:19 mark Al Merryfield scored a powerplay goal with an assist by Awstin Pettit. At the end of the second the score was 2-0 Ravens. Penalities Tecumseh five, Essex three. In the third period the Ravens found themselves in the penalty box six times to Tecumseh's zero times. The Eagles took advantage of this and scored three powerplay goals to beat the Ravens 3-2. A lesson to be learned from this game; work hard and stay out of the penalty box. You have to give 110% every game. Stay focused boys, work hard and listen to your coaches and you will compete and win hockey games. Peewee AE Reid Funeral Home In the past couple of weeks, the PeeWee practices have become more intense. The boys are more organized and showing more aggresion. Last week they played everal games. In some of hese games they outshot he opposition but the pposition's goalies were ough. Our goalies, Ryan t.John and Caleb orkman, stood strong, orked hard and never ave up. In the game gainst Chatham Justin oth scored a goal assisted y John Vandeputte. The ockey weekend was conluded by a game played by ur Ravens PeeWee AE on Sunday night against the Windsor Junior Spitfires, ending in 6-1 for Windsor. The boys played an incredibly fast and furious game until the very end. An excellent goal by Justin Toth assisted by Jeff Geschiere and Riley Jones left the parents begging for more. Our defence and forwards demonstrated some strong checking abilities and the team worked hard making deliberate passes. The possibilities for future games can only be imagined if our boys continue to display this type of fire for the game. Go Ravens Go!