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Beehives Brave the Cold and Take Patriots 4-1

Date: Jan 30, 2010

Toronto, ON: The Beehives took it to the Patriots tonight, capitalizing on the remaining games left in the season by winning 4-1 over Upper Canada.  Upper Canada's Michael Sicilia scored the only goal of the game for the Patriots, an unassisted goal in the second period.

Dixie buzzed with anticipation and got an early goal in the first period; Brendan McCann tapped one low past Pelletier glove-side, with Dixie garnering a penalty shortly after. The powerplay Patriot defensive duo of Erlich Doerksen and Joey Gagliese tried to keep the puck in tight, reducing the opportunity for the Beehives to buzz back down the ice and score. The Beehives did manage to sneak the puck past and found themselves on a breakaway to the Upper Canada hive, to face Jay Pelletier who blocked not one, but two pretty tough plays that had potential to be Dixie's second goal.

There were several good opportunities from the Patriots in the first period, including a nice break up the ice mid-period by Michael Sicilia who made waves in Dixie's end and brought the attention to the other side of the ice - getting the puck out of the somewhat overpopulated Upper Canada end.  Nice offensive pressure from forward David Italiano, a reliable enforcer productive in both scoring goals and setting up scoring opportunities. Late first-period pressure from Dixie gave Sean Levac a chance to score their second of the game through a scramble.

Defenseman Michael Cordi got a little overzealous and bumped a beehive a little hard, both angering the worker bee and earning himself an early second-period penalty for cross checking.  After killing off the penalty, the Patriots invaded the Dixie "hive" and Michael Sicilia broke up the ice to fire the puck at Michael D'Angelo, scoring Upper Canada's only of the game.

The Beehives bounded back with a breakaway deke to Sean Levac, who beat Pelletier and tapped it in, scoring his second of the game and Dixie's third. With still half of the period remaining, aggression began mounting and Patriot Ryan Martin faced a roughing and face-masking penalty alongside Brendan McCann for high-sticking. An extended penalty to Upper Canada put Dixie on powerplay, which wasn't wasted for too long as Manny Gialedakis was fast to get control of the puck and close in with the shot to bring the score at the end of the second period to 4-1 for Dixie.

Nice save by Pelletier at the start of the third period, getting the puck out to Brendan Muise to feed up the ice. Ryan Martin continued to speed around, along with Nick Perruccio, both of which trying to connect with the back of Dixie's net. A nice break from Jesse Facchini with just over two minutes remaining, but was prevented by Dixie's wall of defence. Though the Patriots played stronger in the third, it wasn't enough to extend their lead and the Dixie happily buzzed home with a 4-1 victory.

Upper Canada is visited by North York on Friday, February 5, 8p.m., at the MasterCard Center, followed by a Sunday game, also at home, against the Markham Waxers.

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