GRANITE CITY — The Alton Redbirds defeated the East Alton-Wood River Oilers 4-3 in MVCHA action Tuesday at the Granite City Ice Rink to kick off the Class 1A portion of the schedule.
The win came thanks to some outstanding goaltending by Alton junior Caleb Currie and a third-period goal by sophomore Jacob Eppel, who corralled a loose puck in front of the Oilers' net and flipped it in to put Alton ahead late in the final period.
With the victory, the Redbirds improved to 3-12-2 on the season, while the Oilers plummeted to 1-16 with the loss.
The win was not the prettiest; several times the Oilers were able to expose gaps in the Alton defense, and on four different occasions were the benefactors of bad Redbird turnovers, one of which resulted in a goal that tied the game in the third period.
Currie, who finished the night with 29 saves, faced a number of high-quality shots. Eight times throughout the game there were unchecked Oilers skaters with puck possession alone in front of Currie.
The win is the first for Alton in the newly recast 1A division, which is used to decide seeding for the playoffs. Alton will have to play all the other four teams in the division before it knows its first round playoff matchup.
Alton head coach Steven Campbell was not happy with the way his team won.
“This was not a pretty game for us, but we will take a win,” Campbell said. “We need to see more physical play from the team. Better passing, more heads up play. We are getting outstanding goal tending from Caleb Currie.”
Currie also thought his team could play better in front of him, but thought the Redbirds could use the down play as a learning experience.
“I think we played at their level tonight, and we really need to come out and play at the level we know we can play at, not play down to the other team,” he said.
“We had a few turnovers in the neutral zone. I told them to watch out for (Kaleb) Harrop.”
Harrop finished the night with two goals for the Oilers.
Alton kicked off the scoring less than 5 minutes into the game when Bryce Simon skated in on a 2-on-1 with Tanner St. Peters. Using St. Peters as a decoy, Simon slid a quick shot under the blocker of Oilers' goalie Matthew Shea.
The Redbirds maintained the 1-0 lead until 6:48, when Tyler McHatton picked up a loose puck in front of the Alton net and roofed the puck over Currie for the EA-WR's first goal.
The Redbirds responded under two minutes later with another goal, this time on a bad clearing attempt along the boards by the Oilers. St. Peters intercepted the puck, and with his back against the boards was able to get a bad-angle shot in under the pads of Shea.
Shea, who is backing up an injured Tyler Hamby, was seeing only his second game of MVCHA action.
“Matthew Shea has been a major help for us,” Oilers' head coach Phil Kaylor said. “He came in a few weeks ago to start learning hockey and get ready to compete for a roster spot next season. Within a few weeks, he was thrust into a starting role when our No. 1 goaltender was suspended.”
Overall, Shea stopped a whopping 43 shots on net.
Exactly two minutes after St. Peters' goal, the Oilers tied the game at 2-2 on a Harrop breakaway effort. Oilers' captain Nolan Royce fought off a Redbirds' winger in the Oilers' corner before sending an excellent pass all the way to a center ice, where a sprinting Harrop was able to corral the puck and skate in all alone on Currie and sneak a shot in off the post.
Alton added another goal late in the second to go ahead 3-2, when forward Jack Sumner picked the puck out of a scrum along the boards and stick handled into the slot, where he fired a backhand past Shea.
EA-WR tied the game up one last time though. The Redbirds continued making bad turnovers and it cost them at 12:24 of the third period when they turned the puck over at the Alton blue line to Harrop. He skated in all alone and fired the puck past the glove of Currie to tie the game 3-3.
Kaylor said the turnovers are something his team has been working on, and sees them as vital if they are to have success going forward.
“We taught them that we are not worried about getting beat,” Kaylor said. “We simply want to cut out the hesitation. If we give it our all and get beat, we will learn from it. That’s how you gain hockey experience. Now the boys are forechecking effectively and forcing the opposing teams to make choices
on where to go. When we do that, our second and third forecheckers are able to then react accordingly and cause turnovers. When we forecheck effectively, we make the best teams cough up the puck.”
In all, the Oilers were able to cause nine different turnovers that led to scoring chances.
Campbell mentioned that while his team is struggling to play well, he is positive about their direction.
“We have a young team this year, so getting them used to playing hard for three full periods seems to be the struggle,” he said. “We need better quality shots, and work on keeping the puck in the offensive zone. I saw some physical play at times last night that was nice to see.”
Alton's next game is against Triad at the East Alton Ice Arena at 7:15 p.m. Monday. The Oilers next play Belleville at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in East Alton.
