St. Thomas Jr. Stars, International Silver Stick regional Pee Wee A champions.
St. Thomas takes regional rallying in final and starting tourney with a 0-2 record
Thursday, December 27, 2018
St. Thomas Jr. Stars, International Silver Stick regional Pee Wee A champions.
By Rob J. Ross
ST. THOMAS - The St. Thomas PeeWee Stars are heading to the International Silver Stick championship.
St. Thomas will face Fort Wayne, Indiana, Ann Arbour, Michigan and Quinte West, from Ontario, in their pool, at the tournament, in Port Huron, Michigan, January 10-13th.
At their regional Silver Stick tournament PeeWee A division, December 22-23rd, in Watford, the Jr. Stars didn't make it easy on themselves.
St. Thomas lost their first two games and trailed after two periods in both their semifinal and final.
"We had a slow start to the tournament going 0-2 in the round robin," head coach Joe Doyle said. "However the boys were resilient, stayed disciplined, kept composed, and battled hard all weekend."
St. Thomas finished the round robin in fourth place and had to play the top seeded St. Marys Rock in the semifinals.
"We were fortunate to get re-matches against the two teams that had beaten us earlier in the tournament," said Doyle. "(We) made a few game adjustments, and were able to find ways to win. I was very pleased with the effort, and their never give up attitude over the weekend."
The Jr. Stars fell to St. Marys, 4-2, during the round robin and were trailing 1-0 after two periods in the semifinal.
But Owen Babenko tied the game on a beautiful deke early third period and Cole Hills put the Jr. Stars ahead 2-1, with 19 seconds left in regulation. Assists on the winning goal went to Ryder Stokley and Dawson Watson.
In the final against the Strathroy Rockets, St. Thomas again trailed 1-0 after two periods, but woke up in the third period with three consecutive goals and held on for a 3-2 win.
Kaesyn DeLeebeeck, Aidan MacMillan and Eric Ouelltt scored for St. Thomas. Deleebeeck, Watson, Andrew Monteith and Adam Hodgins, picked up assists.
St. Thomas fell to Strathroy, 3-2, in overtime, in their tournament opening game. The Stars hit two cross bars and had a goal disallowed, before falling behind 2-0. Ayden Doyle and DeLeebeeck scored for St. Thomas.
Stokley and MacMillan potted goals against St. Marys in the round robin game.