Ritchart Tough in Net as Beaver County Badgers Battle Wheeling

BEAVER FALLS- Prior to the exciting AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, there was another sporting event played locally that also came down to the final minute.

The Beaver County Badgers 14U Ice Hockey team hosted a team from Wheeling at Brady’s Run Ice Arena.

We’re bringing this up on Vikings Sports Now because 3 students from Hopewell play on this team- 9th graders Michael Cox and Ray McDowell along with 8th grader Aiden Ritchart.

As is the case with a normal hockey game, there are 3 periods played, with each of them being 14 minutes long.

This was a tightly contested game with the skill level on both teams being equal so it’s no surprise it was a very competitive game with end-to-end action.

From my perspective, the turning point of the game was the first period where the Badgers controlled most of the play and the ice was tilted in their favor. However, the unfortunate part was that despite getting a number of shots on net and pressuring the goalie, they weren’t able to score a goal.

Credit to the team from Wheeling for protecting the front of the net and not allowing many if any rebound chances and the goalie for a doing a great job of controlling the shots and not allowing those rebounds.

At the end of the first period, the game was scoreless.

The Badgers goalie Aiden Ritchart had an outstanding game as he faced a number of shots especially at the end of the first period and pretty much the entire second period. For the game, Ritchart faced 23 shots and kept his team in the game.

Wheeling got on the scoreboard first four minutes into the 2nd period as they converted on a Power Play Goal to go up 1-0. Then later in the period, they scored their second goal on a rebound attempt. Ritchart appeared to have the initial shot covered, which meant a whistle should’ve been blown, however the Wheeling players continued to dig for the puck, and it eventually squirted in. IMO, the play should’ve been blown dead, but it wasn’t, and Wheeling went up 2-0.

The Badgers continued to try and press the issue and with 4 minutes left in the game, their hard work paid off.

With 4:28 left in the game, Gavin Narad got the Badgers on the scoreboard on an assist from Sean Conlon. That goal cut Wheeling’s lead down to 2-1.

The Badgers continued to work and with just 2:45 left, they tied the game at 2 on a goal from Aiden Elder, assisted by Sean Conlon and Gavin Narad.

Unfortunately, Wheeling was able to put one more goal on the scoreboard with 1 minute and 25 second left.

Regardless, it was a very entertaining and well-played game by these two teams.

Nice job out there Vikings (Ritchart, Cox and McDowell!)