EAST ALTON – Alton's hockey team got off to a great start in their Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association game against Collinsville Monday night.

The Redbirds and Kahoks went through the first 14 minutes scoreless, but the Kahoks suddenly went on a tear, scoring four goals in a row before Alton got on the board; the Kahoks went on to take a 9-1 win over the Redbirds on Collinsville's Senior Night.

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The loss dropped the Redbirds to 2-9-2 on the year (six points) and put the Kahoks at 7-5-1 (15 points) with the reseeding of the league's teams into Classes 1A and 2A coming up not long after New Year's; the top six teams in the standings at the break will be placed in Class 2A, with the remaining teams placed in Class 1A for the remainder of the regular season.

“We started off the first period strong,” said Redbird coach Steven Campbell. “I don't know what happened in the second period; I thought for sure we were going to hang with them the whole game. Then the second period came and we quit skating – the results tell it all.

“When you quit playing, that's what happens. It's frustrating.”

Many of the Redbird players are beginners at playing hockey. “As I've said a couple of times, this is a rebuidling year,” Campbell said. “so we've got a bunch of young players, so this is what happens. For a lot of them, this is their second year of playing hockey; I think we have about four or five players that have been playing hockey like two or three years.

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“There is a learning curve there; it's an advantage for the other teams. Like I tell the kids, it's up to you – you control your own destiny is how I look at it. I told the kids, 'we're going to reseed and I expect to win games.' There's no reason this team can't compete. We've got enough good players that we should compete every night. You have to finish all three periods.”

Noah Scrum got the scoring started for the Kahoks early in the second period after both teams had good chances they couldn't cash in on in the first period; Cole Metzger followed 10 seconds after Scrum's goal to up the lead to 2-0. Hunter Longhi then scored twice in 61 seconds to up the lead to 4-0 before Bryce Simon scored to cut the lead to 4-1.

Noah Scrum, on a power play, and Kalib Carlyle finished off the scoring in the second period for the Kahoks. Third-period goals for Collinsville came from Noah Scrum, Longhi and Cory Sperry.

Collinsville outshot Alton 54-9, with the Redbirds' Madison Dallas turning back 45 shots and Zach Stenyer recording eight saves for the Kahoks.

Next up for Alton is an 8:45 p.m. Thursday game against O'Fallon, then the Redbirds meet Triad in an 8 p.m. Dec. 29 game at Wilson Park Ice Rink in Granite City to close out the 2016 portion of the schedule.

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