East Alton-Wood River hockey team turns in big effort against Columbia

EAST ALTON – East Alton-Wood River's hockey team turned in what their coach, John Helmkamp, felt was a big effort against Columbia, considered the best team outside of Edwardsville in the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association, Monday night.

Unfortunately for the Oilers, the Eagles took advantage of some bad breaks and held off the Oilers 4-2 at East Alton Ice Arena.

“It was a good step in the right direction for us, actually,” Helmkamp said. “This is the second-best team in the league; they've only lost one game and, other than a empty-net goal, it was a one-goal game, so we're very pleased.

“We want to win, of course, but this is a good step in the right direction for us.”

A bit of undisciplined play cost the Oilers, Helmkamp felt. “We got a little undisciplined in the middle of the game and that gave them some power plays,” Helmkamp said. “The one that we took put them back up 2-1. We can't do that. We talked about that and we'll get that fixed up for the next (game).”

After a scoreless first period, the Eagles got on the board first when Jarrett Allscheid found Cole Graves with a feed, which he tucked in behind Tyler Hamby with 8:22 left in the second to put Columbia ahead. Jacob Vassos tied it up with 2:37 left in the period when he got a pass from Cole Ford and knocked it home past Josh Stuart to even the game at 1-1.

Right at the end of the second period, however, a scrum in front of the Eagle goal didn't turn out well for the Oilers; Vassos was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Eagles made EA-WR pay for it when Trey Walton scored unassisted with 12:47 left in the third to put them ahead 2-1. Christopher Wagner then extended the lead with 10:34 left when he beat Hamby to make it 3-1 in Columbia's favor.

Undaunted, the Oilers pulled to within a goal with 5:42 to go when Nolan Royse fired a shot that got past Stuart's stick side and into the net, with Jacob Disher getting the assist. The Oilers tried to find a way to get the tying goal, even pulling Hamby in the final minute for a sixth attacker, but Sean Hofstetter fired a shot that went the length of the ice and into the EA-WR goal to seal the game with 29.7 seconds left.

Columbia had 34 shots to EA-WR's 26, with Hamby making 30 saves for the Oilers and Stuart making 24 saves for the Eagles.

EA-WR bounces right back into action at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday when they meet up with Highland at East Alton.

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