Just wanted to let everyone know the Greely Boys' Hockey team (27 players, coaches and wives) did in fact make it to Fredericton, NB, yesterday after a long and very icy 10.5-hour journey. After leaving from Family Ice around 7:00 am, we finally arrived at the rink at 5:20 pm or so without stopping to check in at the hotel ... as you probably are aware, the roads were very bad in Maine and then also in New Brunswick. But our VIP Coach driver did a great job getting us  here, sometimes traveling 5-20 mph.

Game 1 vs. the Leo Hayes Lions at Willie O'Ree Place in Fredericton was a hard-fought and fast-paced game. Leo Hayes is a strong New Brunswick team, having won three provincial AAA championships in the past five years. Leo Hayes started tryouts in early October and has been playing games since late October. The school is directly next to the two-rink Willie O'Ree Place, which is a very nice facility.

After nicely sung renditions of the American and Canadian anthems, Greely jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the first shift of the game on a backhand swat by sophomore Mitchell Parent. Leo Hayes tied it 1-1 later in the period. The game stayed at 1-1 for much of the second period before Leo Hayes struck for three quick goals later in the period for a 4-1 lead, with a 27-19 shots advantage after two periods. Junior Jared Swisher had 23 saves through 2 periods.

But, Greely played a strong third period and crawled back in. Sophomore Alex Wallace converted a pass in the low slot from Evan Dutil to make cut it to 4-2. Not long after, Dutil raced onto a puck at mid-ice and got in alone and finished a nice deke move to cut it to 4-3. With 7 minutes to go in the game, Junior Chris Williams tipped in a Dawson Jowett wrister and suddenly it was 4-4. With both teams battling hard in the final minutes, Leo Hayes took a 5-4 lead with 1:10 to go on a rush and rebound goal. They then added an empty netter and a late goal for the 7-4 final score. Sophomore Spencer Osgood was in net for the third period and made 8 saves in the period. Final shots on goal: Leo Hayes 36, Greely 30.

The roster: A. Moore, C. Williams, M. Parent, A. Wallace, E. Dutil, T. Grasky, L. Stetson, G. Cooney, D. Young, C. Malette, J. McIntyre, P. Johnson, T. Conway, J. Sharp

B. Williams, R. Moore, R. Walker, B. Rawnsley, D. Jowett, Z. Dubbert, M. Kennedy

J. SInger, S. Osgood.

The game featured 3, 20-minute periods.

After the game, the team headed over to the Diplomat diner, a Chinese-Canadian Diner open 24/7 and had a lot of tasty food and good conversation. Orders ranged from chicken Caesar salads and poutine to full racks of ribs, chicken wings, pork fried rice, Wonton soup, cheese steak and fries, fish and chips, veggie omelette, various club sandwiches and fries, and smoked meat sandwich and fries. It was a great spot for a post-game meal and the staff were great and very complimentary about the players and the team.

The team finally checked in to the Fredericton Inn about 11:45 pm and settled in for the night pretty quickly. Plans for today are a team breakfast here at the hotel at 9:30 am and later on a team outing to downtown Fredericton to stretch our legs and look around. There will be a team pre-game hot served meal back here at the hotel at 5:00 pm and then it's off to play the Oromocto HS Blues at the Kings Arrow Rink in Oromocto. Game time is at 8:00 pm, with pre-game warm-ups starting at 7:30 pm.

Coach Barry Mothes