Longboat's Hat Trick Leads Firewolves to Victory

Photo courtesy of Caden Balint

 

Article by Caden Balint

Columnist and Co-Host of The Sports Den on Spanglish World Networks, Spanglish Sports World & Zingo TV

 

Albany. - Last night the Albany FireWolves played host to the Vancouver Warriors in a match where Albany celebrated Indigenous Celebration Night, and what better way to celebrate than with a huge victory over the Warriors by a score of 13-8. Leading the way for the FireWolves was forward Travis Longboat who scored 4 goals and added an assist on route to the victory, while rookie forward Alex Simmons continues to separate himself from the competition for rookie of the year as he was able to add seven points to his already outstanding point total (68) for this season. In a game that saw dueling hat tricks with Vancouver forward Keegan Bal, the FireWolves were able to get scoring from all over the roster having eight different goal scorers with goals coming from captain Colton Watkinson, Nick Chaykowsky, Ethan Walker, Tye Kurtz, Marshall Powless and Nathan Grenon rounding it all out.

 

As the first quarter started Vancouver was on top of the FireWolves in every single way defensively, only letting two shots on goal in the first six minutes and it seemed as if the FireWolves were having some struggles getting set up offensively. There were multiple times the FireWolves were held to their 30 second offensive zone time as the Warriors were able to play lockdown defense and do everything to put themselves in any shooting lanes Albany had. While the FireWolves had a small struggle in their offensive game in the first quarter, the defense was also able to be a thorn in the side of the Warriors, preventing a lot of solid scoring chances that Vancouver were working endlessly to set up. However any time the Warriors seemed to break through, the main thorn in the side began to shine, that being goalie Dougie Jamieson who was making some very acrobatic saves to keep this game tied at zeros after the first quarter.

 

It didn’t take the FireWolves long to score in the second quarter, where Travis Longboat was able to open up the scoring around 30 seconds in, which gave him his first of four on the night. Another breakdown on the Warriors defense led to a FireWolves breakaway and a goal as Nick Chaykowsky was able to add to the Warriors lead. Longboat wouldn’t take long to get his second of the night and help the FireWolves finally get their scoring touch back up to standard and take a three goal lead. The Warriors would get two unanswered goals to end the second quarter but this wouldn’t be any type of energy killer for Albany as they kept up the intensity

right up until the quarter ended.

 

As Albany came out for the third quarter they were able to get started on the powerplay and it wouldn’t take them long to score, bringing that same type of intensity that they had at the end of the second quarter. While Albany picked it up more in their offensive game, finding the shooting lanes they had struggled to find in the first quarter, Vancouver was playing with less discipline than they had hoped and took three straight penalties. Albany was able capitalize on all the powerplay chances they had during the third this including the goal that would give Travis Longboat his hat trick, and what was more of an emotional game for Longboat as he was able to score a career high four goals in the game, on Indigenous Celebration Night in front of his family. As his parents were in the stands it seemed to give Longboat the extra push to lead Albany to this victory. With the fourth quarter starting Vancouver tried to push back into the game as fast as they possibly could with a quick goal, which Albany would answer right away with a goal of their own. As the fourth quarter rolled on Vancouver was still doing whatever they could to mount a comeback however the FireWolves were able to shut that down at every single turn.

 

Game Highlights:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq9t5kW_Yj4&t=3s