Haliburton County Huskies forward Julius da Silva had a big game Oct. 25 versus the rival Lindsay Muskies, but it wasn’t enough as the Fish speared the blue and white 3-2 last Saturday night at home.
Lindsay opened the scoring at 7:24 of the first period, on a Kai Williams tally at the S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena.
However, da Silva scored at 18:27 on a power play, his fifth of the season to that point, to tie the score, with the primary helper going to Connor Hollebek, and the other assist to Alex Rossi. The PP marker tied the game at ones going into intermission.
Then, just 2:18 into the second, da Silva notched another goal – this one short-handed to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead. Ivan Mentiukov notched the assist.
The Muskies answered the bell at 17:27 when Nole Faulkner fired one past Carter Nadon to tie it at twos.
In the third, it was Vincent Gazquez scoring at 5:13 to break the Huskies backs. Nadon turned aside 25 of 28 shots.
Da Silva told The Highlander, “Saturday’s loss was really disappointing, especially up against the Muskies.
“You never want to lose, but I thought we battled hard and we know what we need to work on to be successful.”
As for the rare man advantage goal followed by a shorty, da Silva said, “on the power play, we moved the puck around well, and I just found a good spot in front of the net, my teammates made it easy, I just had to tip it home.
“The shorty was off a read in the neutral zone, and about pressuring their D to try and create a turnover. To be honest with you, at the moment, I didn’t think too much about it, just wanted to get a bit creative and go between the legs so I went for it.”
Da Silva added, “the team’s been working hard to stay consistent all game long, which we know we have to do better at, which is what our coaches have had us focused on. Although we’ve had some disappointing losses, we’ve also had some great team wins, and the losses aren’t as one-sided as they were in September.
“I think we all see the importance of being consistent all 60 minutes and starting on time right from the get-go, and we need to find a way to execute on that because the nights we do, it pays off for us.”
Huskies win in OT
On Oct. 24, the Huskies scored just 55 seconds into overtime to defeat the Markham Royals on the road.
Defenceman Josh Hutton scored his first goal of the season to give his team the win, with assists to Kaiden Thatcher and Nic Ferrante.
In the road tilt last Friday night, the Royals got off to a fast 2-0 lead. The Huskies answered with three of their own (Kieran Raynor, Oliver Tang and Chase Del Colombo). But, in the third, the Royals pushed for the equalizer, and got it at 10:53. That set up a dramatic overtime with Hutton playing hero in the 4-3 win.
The Huskies travelled to Newmarket Oct. 28 for a tilt with the Hurricanes, winning the game 5-4. They next play Nov 5 vs Buffalo on the road.
