      The Canora Cobra Peewees faced off against the visiting Melville Peewee Bucks on December 3 in an entertaining game.
           Canora players knew they had to bring their A game for this tilt, because the Bucks arrived in town sporting a stellar record of five wins and only one loss. Canora came into this game having played Friday and Saturday, so the players were hoping there was some gas left in the tank for this game.
           At the start of the game, the first couple of minutes were played in Canora’s end. Canora’s goaltender No. 31 Cole Marcinkowski stopped the first few of many shots he would face.      The game got its spark of intensity with 18:06 left in the first period when No.24 Rhett Winslow of Melville took a two-minute penalty for boarding. It set the tone for an intense, hard working, physical affair between the two teams.
           Canora couldn’t capitalize on the power play but would have nine more chances on the man advantage as the much bigger Melville team was undisciplined throughout most of the game.
           The rest of the play in the first period belonged to Marcinkowski and Canora’s defence for their positioning, breakouts out of their zone and shot blocking. At the end of the first period the teams went into their dressing rooms still scoreless.
           The second period had great end-to-end action. Canora was coming on stronger with every shift. Melville was starting to get frustrated with the in-your-face style of play of the Cobras with lots of pressure on the Bucks.
           Melville tried to use its size advantage but ended up taking five penalties in the period. The penalties were for boarding, body checking, head contact and even an unsportsmanlike penalty. The Cobras were not backing down and took on the physical style Melville was dishing out and kept playing harder.
           The outstanding scoreless game finally saw its first goal when Canora got on the board with 9:09 left in the middle frame.
           Canora’s No. 2 Taye Shukin took the puck into the Bucks’ zone at full speed. He made a play to get around one defender and had another defender beat just before he got to the net. The Bucks’ player had no other choice but to haul Taye down to prevent a scoring chance. The referee’s arm went up to signal a delayed Melville penalty.
           But Shukin had the determination to keep the play alive and prevented Melville from touching the puck. Even though he had two Bucks with him behind the net, somehow, from his knees, he made a pass out to the front of the net, where a wide open No. 3 Chase Hembling was positioned. Hembling took the beautiful pass and buried a wrist shot in the back of the net.
           The Canora fans erupted and the team was ecstatic. The goal gave the momentum to the home team and for the rest of the period Canora came on stronger and stronger. Tempers started to flare as Canora took some penalties but the players were still showing the Bucks they were not going to back down. When the buzzer sounded to end the second period the score was 1-0 for the Cobras.
           In the third period, Canora kept playing its game and tried to protect a one-goal lead. Melville wasn’t going away and players were shooting from everywhere.
           Marcinkowski was in the zone and made some five-star saves in the Canora net. Included were stick saves, pad saves, glove saves, but the best save of the night came when a Melville player was wide open in front and had him beat on the left side of the net. Marcinkowski shot out his pad and made a fabulous toe save. Even the Melville player looked skyward in disbelief after the save.
           With 13:58 left in the third period, Melville tied the game. It was a power play marker and just like that the momentum swung back in the visiting team’s favour.
           Canora weathered the storm for a while but with 8:31 left Melville took the lead on a nice pass from the corner to find No. 8 Rylen Schultz for the go-ahead goal. Just 23 seconds later Melville scored again.
           Canora didn’t give up as the players pressed and pressured the Bucks to try and even the score but the Bucks would end up holding on to win the game 3-1.
           The game had a playoff feel to it, with the intensity Canora summoned and the strong response from Melville. At the end of the day both teams left the fans thoroughly entertained. The Canora fans must have been proud of how of how hard their home boys played and the effort they put into the game.
