Collinsville hockey continues good start to the season
By Mark Jurgena
The Collinsville Kahoks High School aged club hockey team continued their hot start to the season winning twice last week in three starts to raise their record to 4-1-1 on the season. They sit in 3rd place in the 13-team MVCHA.
Collinsville 5 Freeburg/Waterloo 5
In the words of former St. Louis Blues announcer Gus Kyle: This one was an old-fashioned barnburner.
Collinsville fell behind 4-0 after one period on Nov. 17 then rallied for a tie when Andy Bennett scored the game-tying goal with only ten seconds to play as Collinsville secured one point in the standings and dropped the Raging Bulldogs to 2-1-2 on the season.
“I was not pleased with the start nor was the team, we thought we were better prepared for the start of the game and we did not come ready to play,” said Collinsville coach Craig Duffy. “We had to crawl our way back but we didn’t give up. We got a goal early in the 2nd period and that made it 4-1 and that kind of woke everybody up a little bit.”
That goal to get things going for Collinsville at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex in O’Fallon was scored by Lincoln Duffy off an assist from Tanner Bettis.
However, F/W, who played in the MVCHA championship series last season, came right back and put in a goal of their own.
“They scored again to make it 5-1 but our energy level was up at that point and we never stopped working hard which is kind of our thing, we’re a hard-working team and we are very competitive,” said coach Duffy.
Late in the period, L. Duffy scored again, then a mere twenty seconds later Glennon Bennett made it a 5-3 game headed into the 3rd period.
“At that point, we had the momentum in the game so the 3rd period was all us,” said Duffy.
Ian Yakstis scored for Collinsville to make it 5-4, then a late power play gave Collinsville a 5-on-4 advantage that turned into 6-on-4 when the Kahoks went with an empty net to eventually score the tying goal.
“(It was) a very exciting game and I was proud of the team for continuing to work hard and not think they were out of it,” said coach Duffy.
Collinsville 11 EAWR 1
At the East Alton Ice Rink on Nov. 15, Collinsville beat EAWR handily 11-1.
Andy Bennett and Tanner Bettis each had a hat trick while Bettis added three assists for six total points on the evening.
- Duffy had a pair of goals to help the Kahoks.
- Bennett, Denny, and Austin Zagorski all scored goals for Collinsville.
Benjamin Kittstein had two assists while A. Bennett, G. Bennett, Denny, Kyle Lee, and Dominic Zamarione had one.
Landen Roedl was in goal for Collinsville.
Granite City 8 Collinsville 2
The Kahoks traveled to Granite City to face the reigning MVCHA champions at their rink on Nov. 14 and returned with an 8-2 loss.
“I thought our compete was good,” said coach Denny. “I was happy with our compete level and our work ethic was good.”
Denny indicated the contest was close and halfway through Granite only led 3-2 however the Warriors went on a goal-scoring spree the Kahoks could not answer.
Bettis and A. Bennett each scored a goal and recorded an assist for Collinsville. Denny and Benjamin Klein added assists as well.
