Saugeen Shores Storm Legion Pee Wees String Together a 4-2 Record Over the Past Week
The Legion Pee Wees strung together 4 wins and two losses over the past 9 days in a busy lead-up to the OMHA play downs.
On January 2nd, the Storm travelled down through blowing snow to play Goderich and for their parents’ efforts to drive them safely there and back came away with a 6-2 win. Saugeen opened the scoring in the later part of the first with a goal by Ben Van Ooteghem, assisted by Charlie Wilkinson and Steve Langendoen.
Early in the second period, the Storm got their second goal with one second left on the power play, with Van Ooteghem finishing a nice set play with Wilkinson and Langendoen. The Legion Pee Wees scored the next two goals to open up a 4-0 lead, with Jordan Vanhaelemeesch potting one on a pass from Wilkinson and Mikyle Romanowich driving to the net off a face off, with Wyatt LaBlance and Vanhaelemeesch drawing assists. Goderich’s Ian Simpson scored to get his team on the board about a minute later, but about 45 seconds later, with the man-advantage, Langendoen scored, set up by Vanhaelemeesch and Van Ooteghem, to restore the Storm’s four goal lead.
About mid-way through the 3rd period, the Storm stretched their lead to 5-1 on a break-away goal by Van Ooteghem, assisted by Langendoen. Goderich closed out the scoring with a goal by Chase Kullich to end the game.
On January 4th, Goderich came to Southampton to play their final regular season game against the Storm. It was a much closer game this time, with the Sailors eager to avenge Saturday’s loss, but the Storm held on for a 6-5 win. Goals came from Wilkinson, Langendoen, Romanowich and a hat-trick for Van Ooteghem. Assisting on the goals were Dawson, Wilkinson, and Langendoen.
January 7th saw the Storm in Kincardine, with our guys eager to post a win against the Kincardine team. For the most part it was a close game. Saugeen opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal by Van Ooteghem, set up by Wilkinson and Langendoen. Kincardine got the only goal in the second period – Ethan Long from Scott McFarlan – to tie the game up 1-1. Early in the third period, Saugeen pulled ahead with another goal on the man-advantage - Wilkinson scoring on a set up by Van Ooteghem and Vanhaelemeesch. In what was likely the turning point of the game, Kincardine’s Brett Burrows scored with the man-advantage, assisted by Garrett McFadden and Shane Vollmer. Vollmer scored the next goal about a minute and a half later to give Kincardine the lead for the first time in the game. With about five minutes left in the game, Vollmer scored again to put away the Storm 4-2.
On the second night of a string of four games in four days, the Storm hosted Mitchell in a game at the Plex. The Legion Pee Wees built up a 5-0 lead over the first two periods, with goals coming from Vanhaelemeesch, Hayden Duplantis, LaBlance, Wilkinson and Troy Contois. Assists were given to Aaron Cruchley - with two, and Wilkinson, Dawson, Vanhaelemeesch, Romanowich and Van Ooteghem. Mitchell scored two goals in the third period to close to within 5-2, but Langendoen, assisted by Wilkinson and Van Ooteghem, scored to close out the game with a 6-2 win.
Game three of this stretch of four games saw Listowel drive up to visit the Storm at the Plex for the first of back-to-back matches. In a solid effort, the Storm came away with a 6-3 win. The Storm built up a 3-0 lead on goals by Langendoen, Eric Langridge and Vanhaelemeesch, assists coming from Van Ooteghem, Wilkinson, LaBlance and Romanowich. Bailey Matheson of Listowel scored at the ten minute mark of the second period to make it 3-1 before Saugeen potted another three goals to open up a 6-1 lead. The Storm goals came from Van Ooteghem, Wilkinson and Romanowich with the assists credited to Wilkinson, Langendoen and Contois. Listowel scored two goals in the early in the third period to close to within three goals, but the Storm woke up to hold off the Cyclones for a 6-3 win.
Sunday night the Storm visited Listowel for their final game of the regular season. After a string of 3 games in three nights, it looked like the Storm was not up for the fourth game. Listowel opened the scoring almost half-way through the first period. Two minutes into the second period, the Storm tied it, Van Ooteghem scoring, Contois getting the assist. Almost a minute later the Storm took the lead, Van Ooteghem again scoring, and Langendoen assisting. The lead didn’t last long though as 30 some seconds later Listowel scored to tie the game at 2-2. The Storm took the lead once more about one and a half minutes later on a goal by Vanhaelemeesch assisted by Romanowich and Wilkinson. With almost eight minutes left to play in the second, Listowel scored to tie the game again, potted another 40 seconds later and that seemed to take the wind out of the Storm. Listowel scored again before the 2nd period was over to take a 5-3 lead. In the third period, Listowel scored two more goals before the Storm got their fourth on the night on a goal by Wilkinson, assisted by Langendoen and Van Ooteghem. Listowel finished off the Storm with 1 more goal to wreck any ideas of a comeback for the Legion Peewees. Final score was 8-4 for Listowel
The OMHA play downs will be beginning soon, so watch the Storm website for game times and venue in the upcoming days.