Sean Levac and Manny Gialedakis combined for three goals and two assists and Michael D’Angelo made 26 saves as the Dixie Beehives overpowered the Upper Canada Patriots 4-1 on Saturday night. This game marked the fourth and final match up between the two teams with the Patriots winning two of the three previous encounters. The Beehives were hoping to equalize the season series with a victory on this night.
Dixie came out flying to start this game. The Beehives carried the play for the majority of the first period, only allowing the Patriots to get minor opportunities to score. Brendan McCann opened the scoring about seven minutes into the game, as Sean Levac made a great cross-crease pass to McCann’s open stick blade and he jammed it into the net. The Beehives extended their lead to 2-0 with just six seconds to go in the period. Anthony Dotchison spotted Levac in the clear and hit him with an outstanding breakaway pass. Levac went in on a breakaway an beat the Upper Canada goalie through the five hole with a nifty backhand. After one period, Dixie was up by two goals.
The Patriots cut the Beehives lead in half just seven minutes into the second frame. Dixie was running around in their zone for what seemed to be an eternity and couldn’t get the puck out. That eventually cost them as a Patriot beat a screened D’Angelo through the wickets to make the score 2-1. The ‘Hives woke up after this goal as Gialedakis found Levac for another breakaway opportunity. Levac made the exact same move that resulted in his first goal. On this night, this forehand to backhand move was 2 for 2 and made the score 3-3. Just over three minutes later, Dixie extended their lead to three. On a power play, a shot by Thomas Nosella went wide of the net but the puck took a ‘hometown bounce’ off of the boards right to the stick of Gialedakis. His eyes lit up and he potted the puck into the vacant side of the net. This made the score 4-1 after two periods.
The Beehives were happy to have this lead and were determined to keep and possibly extend their lead. A great team effort on the defensive end led to some offensive opportunities. Most notably, Levac had a breakaway for a chance at his first career hat trick. Instead of using his “go-to” move, he tried to shoot to the high glove side. His shot dinged off the crossbar much to the dismay of the Dixie bench and the fans watching. The Bee’s solid defensive effort continued for the rest of the period. As the final buzzer sounded, the players rushed to D’Angelo as they had soundly defeated Upper Canada 4-1. Dixie also accomplished another stat not often seen this year where they outshot the Patriots 32-27 for the game.
This effort was one of Dixie’s best two-way performances of the season. It was nice to see Levac contributing the way he did. Also, Gialedakis, the current leading scorer of the Beehives, reached the 40 point plateau which is a great statistic for him to have. The final weekend of the season will begin on Friday night as the Beehives will visit the St Michael’s Buzzers. On Saturday, they are in Hamilton to battle the Red Wings. Their final game of the season is on Sunday against Whitby at home at Etobicoke Ice Sports. Game time on Sunday is 8 pm.
(Adam Scully is a former player who recently hung up the skates for the mighty pen of journalism. He will be writing articles and doing the commentary for the live Insinc game broadcasts for the remainder of the home games this season). |
