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EAST ALTON – Bryce Simon gave Alton’s hockey team a bright spot Monday night.
His first-period goal drew the Redbirds even with Highland in their Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association game at East Alton Ice Arena. Unfortunately, that was about the only bright spot the Redbirds had.
“We just didn't show up to play,” Redbird coach Steven Campbell said. “We let Highland walk all over us.”
End result: The Bulldogs took a 6-1 win over the Redbirds at East Alton Ice Arena to drop Alton to 2-7-2 (six points) on the year, while Highland improved to 2-7-2 (six points).
“We didn't skate, we didn't win our battles, we didn't hit, we weren't physical, we gave no support for our goalie (Caleb Currie); just all around, it was not a good game for us.
“It was a rough night for us.”
One thing the Redbirds will have to do, Campbell thought, was to quickly put the game away and get ready for their Thursday night clash against Granite City. “I just told the kids in the locker room, 'the game's over, guys',” Campbell said. “We have to look on to Thursday night's game against Granite City; the last time we played them, I think we lost 6-5.
“We're just a streaky team; one night, we're good, one night, we're not. It's all about physical play; if we don't play physical, we're not going to win. I told them we have to show up and be consistent every game.”
Campbell knows there's still time to get things turned around for the Redbirds. “We're still about halfway through the season,” Campbell said. “Hopefully we can turn this ship around and get it sailing in the right direction.”
The Redbirds are a young team, having lost seven seniors from last year's side. “We're a really young team, we're still rebuilding,” Campbell said. “It's a rebuilding year for us; we still expect to win – we've tied the best teams in the league twice.”
The Bulldogs got on the board first just two minutes into the game, Lucas Korte getting a pass from Cameron Verson and scoring past Currie to give Highland an early 1-0 lead. Alton tied the game with 3:56 left in the period when Bryce Simon scored unassisted past Bulldog netminder Hunter Micheletto to even the game at 1-1 through the first 14 minutes.
It was all Highland in the second period, however; it started when Verson scored unassisted to put the Bulldogs back on top just 56 seconds into the second; Devin Korte scored a bit more than two minutes later from a Bryan Abbe helper before Zackery Korte, Devin Korte again and Brock Troxell all found the range to increase the lead to 6-1. There was no third-period scoring.
Highland ended up with 43 shots on goal, while the Redbirds got 15 shots away; Currie turned back 37 Bulldog shots, while Micheletto had 14 saves.
