A shorthanded West Hill Warriors hockey team left nothing on the ice after a hard 4-3 loss to the Birchmount Park Panthers on Tuesday at Centennial Arena.
The Warriors struggled through injuries, a loss of players due to early Christmas holidays, forward Matthew Stanford’s ejection during the game for “talking after the whistle” and an injury to Andrew Parnell in the third.
Birchmount’s Steven Taylor capped off his hat trick with minutes to go in the game after speeding off the boards to give the Panthers the win.
“I thought we played a really hard game,” said assistant coach Mike Solazkis, whose club is now 1-2.
“We put out an inspiring effort considering we had a short bench and they had a full team.”
Warriors trail
A quick 1-0 Warriors lead four minutes into the game was erased with two first period goals by the Panthers and they never looked back.
Justin Meneghan tied the game at 1-1 off a powerplay goal despite Brian Woon-a-Tai’s sprawling efforts.
Steven Taylor put the Panthers ahead shortly after with a tremendous solo shot as he pushed the puck past a defender and put it upstairs.
Woon-a-Tai single-handedly kept his team in the game with outstanding glove-hand and diving saves in the first.
The second period was much more balanced as the teams went back and forth, and it featured goals just seconds apart. Birchmount went up 3-1 but West Hill potted another just 17 seconds later.
They carried the momentum with a heavy dose of shots that eventually paid off with an easy goal off a turnover for a 3-3 margin.