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~~PenKnight~~ · 04-23-2019, 05:16 AM

(868 Word Count)

The SMJHL Season is underway! The Montreal Militia were chomping at the bit to get things going as they moved lines around and seemed eager to see how their draft picks would preform. We were unable to get any interviews with Management or Top Players but what we were interested in seeing was how this new kid handled the pressure. Who is this new kid you ask? Well, he goes by the name of Zarley Zalapski. He was basically the last pick for the Montreal Militia in the recent draft. Many teams did not know anything about this player or that he was serious about joining this competitive of a league. After Game 1 of the season they are starting to take notice. The Montreal Militia Scouts are starting to look really good with this gamble traveling all the way to Russia to find new talent. It is too early to tell if it will pay off but things are looking better than we had first gave them credit for. Zarley was taken 27th overall in the draft of 48 players. According to our insiders he would not have even been drafted this season but some unknown scout, who freelances, gave Montreal the heads up about this defensive player.

It would seem that he didn't do as bad as some of us thought he might. Sometimes being new to the team, league, city and country can create enough off ice problems that it affects play on the ice. I would say that he played solid defense and didn't take any chances. It seemed that he was trying to play a fundamentally sound type of game not wanting to make any mistakes and be careful. Unfortunately he was called for a minor penalty, tripping, at 10:45 in the first period. The Montreal Militia killed off that penalty and Zarley told us that he felt the call was a bad call but at times this is going to happen, especially playing on the road. The best thing you can do is to forget about it and stay out of the box for the rest of the game. This is exactly what happened for Zarley. After serving the penalty he played a clean game for the rest of his time on the ice. At 19:37 in the second period, Zarley was rewarded for his hard work and clean play. Fellow D-Man Dirk Von Grimmelshausen shot the puck. That shot was blocked by Bedrich Sykora which led to a free puck picked up by Zarley Zalapski. He made a quick pass to Marc Hagan who dished it off to Jaguar Johnson who found the back of the net! This goal came right after the Commander of the Militia scored on the Power Play at 18:39 of the second period. So two quick goals in 58 seconds right before the end of period put the Militia up 3 to 2 over Detroit!

The game was wide open going up and down the ice with 4 lead changes! Zarley Zalapski was surprised that he got over 13 minutes of ice time as he was not expecting to play this much in his first game in the league. He told us that he was happy to put the time in and is willing to contribute whatever he can when he can. The most important thing to him is to help the team win and not make mistakes. He told our reporters that it really bothers him when a goal is scored against his team when he is on the ice. This is the main thing he puts his focus on when training or practicing. He really wants to make the other team make the mistakes so that his team can capitalize and get great scoring chances. When you get those type of scoring chances, Zarley says: good things happen. Any thing less is unacceptable and he has made a promise to work on his game putting the team first above all. Zarley ended up with 13:14 of Ice Time. He had 1 Assist which gave him 1 Point for the game. He also had a plus minus rating of +2. Not bad for his first time out in a hostile environment like Detroit.

Although the Militia gave up five goals this game and won in a high scoring affair we know they are capable of better defense and goaltending. The Militia really held their own on the Penalty Kill this game going 4 for 4 and not letting in any Power Play Goals. Special Teams has always been important to this team and we look forward to watching them get better as the season moves along. Not only was the Penalty Kill clicking for this team but the Power Play went 2 for 2 as well so both Special Teams went 100% for the game! This was one of those type of games that the Militia was beat on the stat sheet in most departments but it was a close contest. The main stat, as always, is goals and they ended up scoring 1 more goal than the Detroit Falcons scored and that is all that is needed in the end.

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