by Christine Flarity
The saying goes that there is no "I" in team and nowhere was this more evident than this past weekend in Strathroy when the Port Elgin Home Hardware/Dunlop Fuels Novice Storm won bronze at the Strathroy Olympics.
The Storm began their quest on Friday afternoon with a game against the host team, the Strathroy Rockets. It was a hard fought battle that was ultimately decided in the last 3 minutes of the 3rd period. The two teams battled to a scoreless first and second period with both sides trading scoring oppourtunities. But the Rockets broke through and scored twice in the 3rd to finish the game with a loss to the Storm of 2-0.
A few hours later, Saugeen Shores was back on the ice for a game against the Listowel Cyclones. The opposition came out of the gate early and quickly built up a 2 goal lead before Sam Kozalenko scored to bring the Storm closer. However the Cyclones answered back and the Storm were down 3-1 in the third period. But this team would not give up. They continued to push towards the net and their hard work paid off. With support from his teammates, Ray Hou scored 3 times to lead his team to a 4-3 victory. Jarrett Blue was once again strong in net, stopping many scoring chances by Listowel in the dying seconds of the game.
A little more than 12 hours later, the Storm were back on the ice to face the Tilsonburg Tornadoes. The scoring was a one sided affair until the third when Eoin MacKay scored in the third on an unassisted play. Although the Storm put in a solid effort, they couldn't put anymore past the Tilsonburg netminder and lost the game 4-1.
Next up for the Storm was an afternoon game against the undefeated Ilderton Jets. The group were not intimidated by the Jets and battled from the opening faceoff. Sam Elyea and James Fowler formed a solid defensive pairing as they pushed the Jets back over the blue line. Ilderton opened the scoring but not to be outdone, Sam Kozelenko tied the score on a nice feed from Skyler Pomroy. Late in the third, the score stood at 3-1 for Ilderton but the Storm continued to fight back. With under a minute to play, Eoin MacKay scored on an assist from Skyler Pomroy but the team ran out of a time before more of a comeback could be staged. Final score 3-2 for the Jets.
Because of their results throughout the weekend, the Novice Rep team earned a spot in the bronze medal final on Sunday morning. Their opponents were the Tilsonburg Tornadoes who they had lost to the morning before. The game was non-stop action that had both parents and arena fans on the edge of their seats. Tilsonburg scored early but Saugeen Shores did not let it stop them. Less than 2 minutes later, Caelan MacDonald scored her first of the tournament to tiethe score heading into the second. The teams continued to play hard in the second with scoring chances coming from both sides. Francesca Alpenjaro, Nick Lalonde and James Fowler fought hard along the boards carrying the puck across the blue line towards the Tornado net. Storm fans watched as the Tilsonburg team seemed to claim the broze with the go ahead goal coming with 40 seconds left on the clock. But the Storm were not done. The next faceoff, Ray Hou charged down the ice and scored to tie the game and force overtime.
Strong defensive plays by Sam Flarity and David Parsons helped to keep Tilsonburg at bay during the overtime period. Then a minute into the extra time, Corey Ribey soared along the boards, past the defense and shot a bullet into the net to give the Storm the broze medal. The crowd went wild as the Saugeen Shores Storm earned the well deserved victory.
Go Storm!