EAST ALTON – No matter what level opposing teams play them at, taking on Edwardsville's hockey teams is never an easy task.
East Alton-Wood River's Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association team knew it going into their Tuesday night game against the Tigers at East Alton Ice Arena. They gave it their best effort, first-year Oiler coach Phil Kaylor felt, but the Tigers defeated EAWR 13-1 in a game terminated early in the third period by the MVCHA's 12-goal rule.
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“They have a tremendous amount of talent on their team; they have a lot to choose from,” Kaylor said. “They have a lot of skating experience that we don't have right now. We lost six seniors (from last year's team) and that's a big chunk – our starting five and our goaltender.
“We have a team of freshmen and sophomores, with only four upperclassmen right now. I cannot be more proud of the effort my guys gave; they did not quit even when it was 12-1 and our backup goalie came in. Our guys still continued to check and skate and that's what we need.”
As young as the Oilers are, each game is a learning experience, Kaylor feels. “I'm trying to explain to them that this is the cycle you go in,” Kaylor said. “In two years, when I'll have seven or eight seniors on the team, they're going to be dishing it out to other teams. Ethan Fillop, Jacob Disher and Issac Lewis – that was the best game I've seen that that line have played all season. They played as a team and did not quit and tried their hardest.”
“The boys played very well,” said Tiger coach Jason Walker. “The big thing for our team is just searching for consistency, being a young team, game in and game out. I thought we came out tonight and had a good game.
“I was a little disappointed in the few offensive-zone penalties we had; we've got to clean that up, but overall, we came out of the game pretty well. We're still a younger team searching for our consistency, but you look at our record and the way they've played against everybody in this league so far, we couldn't' be happier where we're at. We're right where we want to be; we know we have to get better if we're going to finish this thing off, but it's been good so far.”
The Tigers jumped out ahead in the opening period with goals by Logan Corzine from William Schuster, Nate Frey from Jordan Crowe and Corzine from Mark Tucker to take a 3-0 lead through the first 14 minutes; EHS extended the lead in the second period with goals from Trevor Laub, Tucker twice and Collin Salter to jump ahead to 7-0 before Jacob Disher, from a Ethan Fillip assist, put EAWR on the scoreboard.
Schuster, Frey, Sam Gibbons and Tyler Berry scored for the Tigers in the remaining minutes of the second period to put EHS ahead 11-1, then third-period goals from Kellin Roettgers and Gibbons ended the game.
The Tigers had 50 shots on goal to the Oilers' seven; Jacob Foley turned back six EAWR shots, while the Oilers' Tyler Hamby had 37 stops.
Edwardsville improved to 9-0-2 (20 points) to lead the league; like last season, in early January, the league will divide into two divisions, the 1A and 2A divisions, based on the standings after each team has played each other once, with the top six teams placed in the 2A division and the bottom six teams placed in the 1A division; EAWR fell to 1-10 (two points).
Next up for the Tigers is a key game against Freeburg/Waterloo, who is chasing the Tigers in the standings at 8-1-1 (17 points), at 8 p.m. Thursday at Granite City's Wilson Park Ice Rink, while the Oilers' next game is against Columbia at 8:45 p.m. Monday at EAIA.
