Randy Cannon has made a big impression in a short time.
In the last eight months he has gone from being a newcomer to a champion in local ball and roller hockey. Over the weekend Cannon won the Cherry Cup, Cayman’s biggest hockey prize. The goalie steadied ITS Cayman to a 6-5 victory in the third and final game of the 2011 Logic Adult Roller Hockey League finals over the High Rollers.
Cannon’s play throughout the series was all his team-mates could talk about. Team captain Mark Missal states the net-minder was remarkable considering the adjustments he had to make.
“Randy came on late in the season and continued that form in the playoffs,” Missal said. “He came from Canada with a background in ice hockey. He had some adjustments to make. The ball, for example, moves different than a puck. But he played really good in net, made a lot of saves and I’m happy he’s back there for us.”
Forward Chris Moser is one of the long-serving veterans for ITS. He was on the court back when goalie Ryan Vanderwal left the island after losing in the Cherry Cup last season. Moser states that Cannon’s performance numbed the loss of Vanderwal.
“Randy really stepped up for us with the loss of Ryan,” Moser said. “As this series shows, we got lucky in getting Randy. Ryan is missed but I’m grateful that Randy played for us. We knew the High Rollers, with guys Eric Mildenberger and Chris Creighton, would be hovering around our defenders, such as Alexis Cloutier, looking to score. But Randy stepped up and stopped them.
“Ultimately everyone likes to play the High Rollers. Everyone wants to beat Darryl Hather, especially since he has them always near the top. It wasn’t easy to beat them.”
Missal doubled as the team’s top scorer during the regular season campaign. In spite of mediocre statistics and a subpar offence, Missal led the way with 26 goals and 37 points. Interestingly Missal missed out on the league scoring title to Dan Etherington of the High Rollers, who was a big factor throughout the series. Missal states the battle between the two was minor.
“Dan had eight goals in the last game of the season to be scoring champ. It doesn’t bother me at all, I didn’t even care when it happened. All I knew was with our goalie and defence we could win. And we did.”
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