The Sutton Huron Shores Realty Storm entered the
Arran-Tara tournament this past weekend and put in a great effort which resulted
in two solid performances in their first tournament of the year.
The first game saw the Storm matched up against
West Grey for an early 9am contest. The
Storm came out absolutely flying and played what was likely their best game of
the season. The first period saw a
flurry of early chances for the Storm, however the West Grey goalie put on a
clinic keeping the Sutton Realty Storm at bay.
Halfway through the period Malachi McKinnon finally got the Storm on the
board, taking a feed from Sean Moorehead and ripping a snap shot off the goalie’s
glove and in for a 1-0 lead. The Storm
continued to press but were denied time and again and the first ended with a
1-0 score.
The second period again saw the Storm carry the
play, and it resulted in four Storm goals.
Two were scored by Jason Legge, one coming on a great wrist shot off the
crossbar and in. McKinnon scored his second of the game, using a wrap around
move from behind the net to sneak one past the goalie. The other Storm goal was scored by Jack Baerg,
who carried the puck into the zone and snapped one by the West Grey goalie to
the blocker side. Baerg, Chad Lawerence,
and Brodie Palinksy all picked up assists in the period.
In the third the Storm continued their strong play. Lawerence was the offensive star of the period
picking up 3 goals. Joseph Hodgkins,
Cameron Cumming, and Legge rounded out the scoring in the period. Legge’s goal was his third of the game. Cumming and Baerg also picked up assists
during the period. The teamwork and
excellent passing of all players was great to see and created many of the
goals.
Ella Marshall volunteered to play goal after the
Storm’s goalie for the day became ill the morning of the tournament. She was responded with a tremendous performance
in net and held West Grey off the board until the final few minutes. The final score for the game was 11-1 in
favour of the Storm. Jack Baerg was
selected as the player of the game by the West Grey coaching staff, and was
presented with a trophy for his efforts.
The Storm did not have much time to celebrate
their victory however, as their second game of the tournament started just one hour later, and saw the Sutton
Realty Storm face rival Shallow Lake Lakers #1 . After some between game snacks and mini
sticks, the Storm were ready to play and again came up with a fast start.
The Storm had lots of energy in the first period
and were able to score three quick goals.
Lawerence used the momentum from his strong third period in the first
game, and scored the first two goals of the game which resulted from great
rushes with the puck. Baerg got an
assist on Lawerence’s second goal, and then thought he’d get one of his own to
give the Storm a 3-0 lead after one period.
The second period was another good one for the
Storm, as they worked hard and carried the play. However they were unable to beat the Laker
goalie who played a strong game for his team.
His play bought time for the Lakers to get their game going, and they
were able to pick up two late goals in the second to narrow the Storm’s lead to
just 3-2 after the second.
In the third the Sutton Realty Storm tried with
everything they had to hang on to their lead; however it proved not to be their
day. The Lakers were able to score a few
goals early in the period, and also a few goals late, and skated away with a
6-3 victory.
Despite the score the Storm played a strong game
and were proud of their efforts. Charlie
Marshall played a consistent defensive game and Jason Legge was voted as player
of the game by the Laker coach for his numerous end to end rushes and strong
defensive play on the back end.
This coming weekend the Sutton
Huron Shores Realty Storm have two games.
On Saturday January 18th the Storm host Arran-Elderslie at
12pm in Port Elgin. The following day
the Storm face Saugeen Shores #1 in Southampton starting at 1pm.