The Maitland Minor Peewee Ice Sharks surprised quite a few fans with some determined play against four excellent opponents at the Regional AAA Tournament held this past weekend in Woodstock.
The Ice Sharks played their first game against the Regional Express Blue Team and seemed to be caught off guard after two weeks of inactivity. The Blues got three quick goals in the first and added three more before the midway point of the second. The Ice Sharks, however, played the last half of the game in a 0-0 tie and got some excellent saves from Eric Ryan.
The Ice Sharks used the momentum of the second half of the first game against their second game opponents, Pro Hockey. Pro Hockey opened the scoring in the first period but the Ice Sharks answered before the period was over. Logan Lammerant popped one from the face-off after Tyler Hak won a decisive draw. The Ice Sharks battled hard for the rest of the game as they were down 3 players from their normal line-up. Daniel Dekoning made some key saves late in the game to preserve the tie and the defence of Brett Dunsbier, Carter Stewart, Michael McMurren and Brett Carter played strong in front of Dekoning to clear the rebounds.
The first game on Saturday saw the Ice Sharks face off against the Regional Express White squad. The Ice Sharks opened the scoring when Brody Tenpas drilled one home after a face off win from Keegan McLelland deep in the White end. Ryan then made the save of the tournament as he sprawled to make a glove save on the goal line of what was a sure White goal. The White did tie the game but that goal was quickly answered by a Brett Dunsbier blast from the point with a pass from Payton Dunlop. The White went up with a late goal in the first and an early goal in the second before Keegan Goetz notched one for the Ice Sharks from Carter Stewart and Keegan McLelland. The White went up once more but the Ice Sharks wouldn't let their prey loose as Derrick Bernath popped one in the top shelf after some solid work by Tenpas and Lammerant. The third period was scoreless and the Ice Sharks earned a hard fought tie.
The last game of the Tournament was against one of the top teams in the province, the Regional Express Gold. The Ice Sharks got quite the lesson in defensive zone play and again got some wonderful goaltending from Dekoning. Try as they might, the Ice Sharks couldn't keep the Gold off the score board and hopefully learned some valuable lessons to carry forward to next weekend at the Top Gun Tournament in Etobicoke.
submitted by: Phil Carter