The Legault’s Independent Midget AE team travelled to Strathroy on Friday to compete in the 43rd Annual Minor Olympics. The Storm’s first game saw them face off against the Wasaga Beach Stars and lead Wasaga 2 – 0 by the end of the second period with goals by ....
Dan Clazie and Gaige Jackson, with assists going to Hayden Burke, Tyson Carter and Kevin Bowman. Early in the third, the Storm got into penalty trouble and allowed Wasaga to score three unanswered goals leaving the Storm with a 3 – 2 loss.
The Storm’s second game saw them play against the Mooretown Storm. Again the Saugeen Storm got on the scoreboard first with a goal by Darren Kimewon, assisted by Carter and Jackson, but Mooretown answered within one minute to tie the game. Saugeen went ahead 2-1 in the second with a goal by Jackson, from Cale Pyette and Jordan Gibbons. But again, Mooretown answered with their own goal four minutes later. Mooretown went ahead 3–2 early in the third, however, with hard work and determination, Carter managed to tie the game at 3-3 with helpers going to Cass Walden and Gibbons with just over a minute left to play. With only 44 seconds left in regulation, Mooretown managed to pot the game winner leaving the Storm with a tough to swallow 4–3 loss.
Having incurred two losses, game three was a must-win game for the Storm if there was to be any hope for them advancing to the next round. Their opponent was the host team, the Strathroy Junior Rockets. Strathroy opened the scoring in the first period. In the second period the Storm answered with three goals of their own. Scoring first was Jackson, assisted by Lucas Ross and Kimewon. The second goal came from Brannt Hall, assists going to Gibbons and Clazie. The final goal was put to the back of the net by Burke, with the helper going to Darren Ritchie. Good defensive play by the Storm and some timely saves by goaltender Jordan Kelly kept the third period scoreless and the Storm maintained their 3-1 lead for the victory.
As fate would have it, the opportunity presented itself that the Storm could be playing for the gold medal with a win over their next opponent, the Huntsville Otters. Huntsville opened the scoring less than a minute into the game and scored their second goal early in the second period, to lead the Storm 2-0. But Ritchie scored assisted by Burke later in the second and the third period began with the Storm having closed the gap to one. The Storm quickly went down another goal to be trailing 3-1 but an unassisted goal by Burke put the storm back to within one. With less than two minutes to play in the game, the Storm pulled the goalie for the extra skater, but unfortunately, Huntsville got control of the puck and scored in the empty net with 1:20 left in the game. A determined Storm with the goalie still pulled, managed to put it back to within one goal with only 40 seconds left on the clock on a goal by Carter, from Alex Pilar. Determination wasn’t enough and the Storm fell to Huntsville 4-3. Accompanying this loss was the loss of Cass Walden who was injured in the second period and had to leave the game.
This put the Storm into the Bronze Medal Game on Sunday, in a rematch against the Wasaga Beach Stars. The Storm dominated the play in this game, not allowing Wasaga many scoring chances and any chances they did get were denied by Jordan Kelly earning him a shut out win. The final score was 4-0 for the Storm with goals by Burke, Pilar (2), and Bowman with assists going to Ritchie (2), Hall, Clazie, Pyette and Burke.
The Storm’s next game is against Tiverton this Wednesday at 7:30 at the Plex