Here... and ready to go

Zschach, Squirt #2 open season with shutout win

A week ago, Jaguar Squirt #2 was not even sure if it had a goalie.

In the season opener, however, goalie Kenny Zschach made his presence quite apparent.

With just one practice under his belt as a member of Squirt #2, Zschach made 15 saves en route to a 3-0 shutout victory over the visiting South Bend Irish #1. His performance, combined with the circumstances surrounding Zschach’s late addition to the team, prompted Coach Rob Sterioti to put aside his usual policy and award Zschach a game puck.

While Zschach was able to keep the Irish from depositing that puck into the Jaguar’s net, the Jaguar skaters were able to find the back (or, in at least one case, the side) of the Irish’s net on three occasions.

The first of those occasions came less than eight minutes into the first of the Jaguars eight seeding –round games in the Red Tier of the Silver Level of the Squirt Division of the Northern Illinois Hockey League. Dylan Graziano dug the puck out of the corner at the Jaguar’s end of the ice and made a clearing pass to Ryan Louthan near center ice. Louthan wound through the Irish defense and sent the puck sailing into the net for the first goal of the season with 3:04 to play in the first period.

The Jaguars nursed the tenuous one-goal lead into the third period, before Blake Brenczewski made things a bit more comfortable. He converted on an assist from Max Krause with 6:47 to play in the game to up the lead to 2-0.

Max Sterioti put the icing on the cake with 3:55 to play, scoring from a seemingly impossible angle near the goal line. After taking a pass from Liam Jenkins, Sterioti flipped the puck past the Irish goalie, banging it into the far side of the net, just under the crossbar. The goal lifted the margin to what would prove to be the final 3-0 score.

The Irish, however, did not let the Jaguars record the shutout without a final fight. They forced Zschach to make some big saves in the closing minutes and banged a couple more shots off iron during that period, but still came up empty in the end.

The Jaguars will put their 1-0-0 NIHL record on the line on Tuesday evening, Oct. 2, when they travel to Arctic Ice in Orland Park to take on the Vikings in a 6 p.m. game.

Here we go again!

It is hard to believe that a new season of Jaguar Hockey has already begun. Actually, it has done more than begun,m it is already in full swing.

Squirt #3 will get things going for real on Sunday, when they travel to Winnetka to open seeding round play. Under Coach Scott Coash, the team boasts a wide array of players with a variety of experience -- from players coming out of ADM Majors who will be playing their first fall season of travel hockey to a group of players who helping Mite #2 to a very successful season and third-place finish in NIHL play last fall.

While it may take awhile for the kids to blend as one single squad, they are deep in talent and should go a long way in the NIHL Bronze division.

Speaking of teams with a lot of depth and an interesting blend of talent, Squirt 2 is getting ready to roll on its new season as well. With an informal scrimmage under its belts, Squirt 2 is about a week away from getting its seeding round play started against the Irish on Inwood Ice Sept. 29.

Like Squirt 3, Squirt 2 is being formed from several groups of kids who have played together previously -- although as a complete unit, this is also a team that has never been together before. Four of the kids played together on Mite 2 last fall, several more played together on Mite 1, and a group of four or five of the kids got their start in Jaguar Hockey together back in ADM.

A deep, talented Squirt Silver team that could seemingly give many gold-level teams a run for their money, Squirt 2 should be an entertaining team to watch.

... or, at the very least, follow on JaguarHockeyDad.