After five games the South Muskoka Shield is touting a perfect record and is tied for first place with the Elliot Lake Bobcats with 10 points in the northern division of the Greater Metro Jr. A Hockey League (GMHL).

In weekend play, the Shield continued its winning streak on home ice, destroying the Ville-Marie Dragons 13-3.

The Dragons is one of the newest teams to join the GMHL and travelled to Gravenhurst from the shores of Lake Temiscaming, Quebec, Friday night.

Ville-Marie may have scored first, but South Muskoka’s offence was definitely the strongest.

Team captain Chris Vandertas notched the Shield’s first power play point at 4:41 with Sylvester “Sly” Spencer receiving credit for the assist.

Nineteen seconds later, Dylan Sontag found the net on another power play with help from Travis Saltz and newcomer Ricky Greenslade.

Greenslade maintained the Shield’s strike, scoring on the Dragons’ Kiwi goalie Kane Easterbook, assisted by Kirk Kelly and Travis Saltz.

With less than five minutes to play, Chad Meagher found the net with help from Matt Foley and Derek Rodgers, increasing the Shield’s lead to 4-1.

Sontag, backed up again by Saltz and Greenslade, scored his second power-play marker of the period with 48 seconds remaining on the clock.

Not a full minute into the middle frame, rookie goalie John Thomson allowed the second Dragons goal, the second for Jason Sills Naut, a Ville-Marie native.

But the Shield came back fighting with Greenslade and Saltz tag-teaming a short-handed Ville-Marie to secure the Shield at 6-2.

Taking advantage of the Dragons’ sixth penalty while the Shield had yet to be sent to the penalty box, new recruit Rob Childs scored with help from his fourth-line teammates Steve Vince and rookie Wil Irons.

The attack on a short-handed Ville-Marie continued as Vandertas picked up another point and Spencer his second assist, also assisted by newcomer Manuel Overleitner.

Veteran forward Troy Storm furthered the Shield’s lead to 10-2 with back-to-back goals on the Dragons netminder, with single assists going to Spencer and Eastern newcomer Adam MacBeth, and two assists for Vandertas.

Ville-Marie added a third marker about two minutes before the final frame, but was held scoreless in the third while Meagher, Rodgers and Greenslade added to the Shield’s convincing victory. Assists were credited to Meagher, Kelly, Vandertas and Irons.

Though the Shield took seven minor penalties in the third period, including a 10-minute misconduct against veteran defenceman Dale Hatfield, head coach Rick Irons was pleased to see the team playing a more disciplined game.

“I asked the boys to play a more disciplined game and overcome the penalty problems that we’ve experienced in the first three games,” Irons said. “The boys responded with a disciplined game against an extremely chippy Ville-Marie. In a number of incidents Ville-Marie players tried to get our players to engage in fights or retaliation-type penalties, but the boys would not be fooled.”

But Thomson, the Shield’s goalie, was stirred up by an opposing player chirping at the crease of the goal. He drew fighting and instigating penalties. He was disqualified from the game with little more than three minutes remaining and Eric Pye came in to finish the game between the pipes. Thomson was suspended from playing the next game.

“Everybody on my team knows how I feel about it. I don’t condone fighting because I don’t think it’s part of the game,” said Irons. “John understands that and he apologized to myself and the team for his actions.”

With the backup goalie benched from Saturday’s game, Irons said MacBeth, who has played goal before, was willing to do whatever it took to help the team out.

“He dressed as a defenceman, but we made some arrangements with the referees that if something were to happen to Eric (Pye), that he was injured or suspended, we would have another goalie dressed in 15 minutes,” Irons explained.

College Showcase

weekend

With a fourth win in hand, the Shield travelled to Thornhill to participate in the GMHL College Showcase Cup where they played a league game against the Espanola Kings.

A few NCAA scouts were in attendance, according to general manager Gord Carey, but a conflicting tournament in Bowmanville led to poor scouting representation, he explained.

“I talked to a couple of the scouts and gave them my business card,” he said.

Pye played between the pipes for South Muskoka, who significantly outplayed their opponents.

“For the few opportunities they did have, Eric was solid,” said Irons.

The Shield scored early and often, notching four goals in the first period of the afternoon game. James Cook, Matt Foley, Wil Irons and rookie Tim Wender earned points, while Spencer, Rodgers, Meagher, Cook, Childs and Irons received assists.

With a 4-0 lead heading into the second period, Wender went in for his second goal, assisted by Sontag and Vince.

Foley closed out the middle frame with his second marker, with help from Sontag and Meagher.

Working well together, the starting line of Saltz and Greenslade found the net less than five minutes into the last period, followed 20 seconds later by a solo shot by Saltz.

Captain Chris Vandertas scored the last goal for the Shield unassisted at 6:05, but Espanola had the last word, spoiling Pye’s presumed shutout with a power-play goal almost halfway to the final buzzer. The Shield handed Espanola their third loss of the season by a score of 9-1.

South Muskoka kept the penalties to only three minors in the final frame, compared to Espanola’s eight minors throughout the game, one misconduct and one disqualification for unsportsmanlike conduct.

When asked about the game, coach Irons said he and Carey recruited players based on speed and skill.

“With the implementation of the NCAA rules this year, there is no room for fighters or players whose games rely on hooking or holding their opponents,” Irons said. “I believe our team’s speed and skill will challenge the top teams in the GMHL.”

Friday night the Shield take on two-time Russell Cup winners, when playoff champions the Bradford Rattlers (4-1-0-0) roll into town.

“We’re going to prepare like it’s our biggest game of the season,” said Irons. “We started to work last week on defensive zone coverage and all special teams and plan to match skill for skill. We haven’t played them yet, so I don’t know what they’ll bring.”

The puck drops at the Gravenhurst Centennial Centre at 7:30 p.m.

After a day’s break, the team will head north to Sturgeon Falls for its second outing against the Nipissing Alouettes (3-2-0-1).