Last Steep and Brick Oven battle to 1-1 tie

Game hits warp speed

There was no doubt this game was going to be good. The last time the Last Steep and the Brick Oven met, it was the 2014 town league finals when the Brick Oven edged out a 2-1 win scoring in the final 10 seconds.
Both teams have relatively the same rosters as last year with a couple key additions. The Brick Oven picked up Sharbel Dussault in the draft adding speed and skill while the Last Steep grabbed Zach Vandyke as their goalie and both acquisitions paid off when the two teams met Tuesday night at Big Mine Ice Arena.
The game opened at a furious pace only to pick up speed over the course of three periods. The Brick Oven set the tone early led by Dussault who was noticeably one step faster than everyone else on the ice. Fortunately, Steep defenders Ian Havlick and Chad Dixon were smart enough to be perfectly positioned to close Dussault down before he could do any early damage. That and the fact that Vandyke might just be the best goalie in town league so any time the Brick did bust through the Steep defense, Vandyke made the stop.
The Brick broke through nine minutes into the first period after pinning the Steep in their defensive zone for an extended stretch. After looking in the corners to provide some options in front of the Steep net, the Brick found the Steep collapsed and fed the puck out to Kent Preston at the point. Preston took a stride and fired a low slapshot through traffic and while Vandyke was there for the initial save, the puck dribbled off his pads and Dussault crashed on the rebound to score for a 1-0 Brick lead.
The Steep regrouped between periods and with a focus on forechecking, managed to handcuff the Brick in the neutral zone. The effort led to several minutes of wide-open hockey as the two teams traded off runs at their opponent’s nets.
The climax came in the ninth minute when Ben Preston broke free for a one-on-one on Vandyke. Vandyke denied Preston’s shot and the Steep turned the puck back up ice to find Miles Mcdonald all alone behind the Brick defense. Mcdonald turned straight to net and skated in for a one-on-one but Deuce Wynes denied as well.
Meanwhile, a lone player for the Steep was slowly but surely making her presence known on the ice. Amidst all of the back and forth mayhem, Marie Madaras was finding her rhythm coming up with subdued but key plays at both ends of the ice waiting for just the right moment to strike.
She found that moment three minutes into the third period. As the Brick was pressing to try and find another seam in the Steep defense, Madaras gathered a loose puck and started slicing her way through the Brick players. After flashing by their flat-footed defense in neutral ice, Madras cut to the front of the Brick net. Brute force and speed by the Brick players managed to close off the initial angle but sheer determination by Madaras made all of the difference as she followed on her initial shot to poke her own rebound past Wynes and tie the game 1-1.
As the game wore on, it appeared as if it would come down to who has got the lungs to last as both teams continued to push the pace. Both Wynes and Vandyke came through with several big saves down the stretch and while neither team appeared to slow down, neither team could find that final touch for the game winner leaving both teams with the bitter taste of a tie.