The Saugeen Shores Novice LL#3 Storm playing their first tournament of the year returned home with some hardware winning the Consolation title in Durham on Feb 6th. The Team opened the day bright and early with a game against Wingham #2. The play was evenly matched throughout most of the game with lots of offensive and defensive action until Wingham managed to squeeze in a goal mid-way through the 3rd period. The Storm continued to rally back and forth, but was unable to get it back. Final score – Wingham - 1, Saugeen Shores – 0 sending the Storm to the consolation sideGame 2 for the Storm saw them up against Walkerton, who had narrowly lost in a shoot-out in their first game of the tournament. The Storm came out hard in the first period with a goal by Josh Neron, assisted by Dane Heipel to start things rolling. Later in the 2nd, Neron struck again with his second of the game, assisted by Skylar Soini. Plenty of digging by Logan Lemcke and Soini kept the Storm pressing. Strong defensive play by Jared Cameron-Nashkewa, Toby Wilkinson and Eve Martin and top notch goaltending by Theo Wilkinson preserved the shutout. The final score – Saugeen Shores – 2, Walkerton – 0 putting the Storm into the consolation final.
In game 3 Saugeen Shores had to fight back early as Wingham #1 scored 3 quick ones to start the first period. The Storm would never give up and answered back when Carter O’Leary fired one in the net, assisted by Toby Wilkinson to round out the period at 3 to 1 for Wingham. Saugeen Shores started closing the gap in the 2nd period when O’Leary potted his second of the game (assisted by Neron). The comeback continued when Dane Heipel found the back of the net on a nice set up from Neron and Cameron-Nashkewa. Wingham #1 got one of their own in the 2nd and the period ended with a 4-3 lead for Wingham. Lots of hard work by the defensive trio of Eve Martin, Toby Wilkinson, and Jared Cameron-Nashkewa and strong fore checking by Dane Heipel, Skylar Soini, Logan Lemcke and Brendan Crombeen helped keep the puck in the opponent’s end. Late in the 3rd period O’Leary bulged the twine again completing the hat trick on a set up by Neron and knotted the game at 4’s sending it into overtime.
Five minutes of fast paced end to end sudden death overtime was not enough to decide the outcome as the game was still deadlocked at 4. This meant a shootout was looming. With 5 players going for each team, goaltender Theo Wilkinson stood tall with some stellar goaltending and stoned all four WIngham shooters. A couple of nifty deaks by Carter O’Leary and Josh Neron sealed the fate for the Storm. Saugeen Shores Novice LL#3 won the consolation championship! The MVP in the final for the Storm was awarded to Dane Heipel. Congratulations to all Storm Players – a gritty effort and hard work by all throughout the entire tournament. Way to go Storm!