Port Elgin Home Hardware/Dunlop Bros. Fuels in Fergus for Tournament
by Christine Flarity
This past weekend, the Saugeen Shores Novice Rep Storm travelled to Fergus to compete in the 26th Annual Legion hockey Tournament.
They began the tournament playing the host team, the Centre Wellington Fusion, undefeated during their regular season. The Storm were in tough, but battled from the opening face-off. The Fusion were too much, defeating the Storm 9-1. Scoring the lone goal for the team was Eoin MacKay on an unassisted play.
Next up for the Storm were the Tilsonburg Tornadoes, a team they defeated for the bronze medal in Strathroy last month. The Tornadoes were out for revenge, and this time got the better of Saugeen Shores and defeated them 7-2. Francesca Alpajaro, Ray Hou, Caelan MacDonald and Sam Kozelenko worked hard to try and keep their team in the game by charging down the ice with the puck. Scoring for the Storm was Skyler Pomroy and Eoin MacKay.
After an evening in the pool and a few games of ministicks, the team played Saturday morning against the Mitchell Meteors. This was set up to be another tough match as Mitchell had tied Centre Wellington the day before. Mitchell was on the scoreboard first but the Storm held them off until the third when the opposition scored 3 more times. The Novices answered back with a lone goal but it wasn’t enough as the Meteors held on for a 4-1 win. Scoring for the Storm was Nic Lalonde, assisted by James Fowler.
The 4
th game of the tournament would determine who would advance into Sunday’s semi-final. The Storm were up against the Hespler Shamrocks, who were also winless in the tournament. The Shamrocks were on the board first before the Storm tied it up in the second on a goal by James Fowler, assisted by Nic Lalonde. Jarrett Blue was solid in net, keeping the game close for his team. David Parsons, Sam Elyea, Corey Ribey and Sam Flarity played solid defense throughout the second to keep the Shamrocks from scoring. Hespler went ahead again then added an empty net goal for insurance in the third period. The final score was 3-1.
Although it didn’t show up in the win column, the Storm gave it all they had this past weekend and should be congratulated for their efforts. The Storm return to regular season play this week with a game against Walkerton on Thursday evening in Southampton. The team will be collecting new unwrapped toys at the gate to donate to the Salvation Army Christmas toy drive.