Mar 18, 2012 | John Barr | 1188 views
New Hamburg Huskies Dominate Little Braves
New Hamburg Home Hardware Huskies enjoyed success at Plattsville's Little Braves 42nd annual tournament March 14th.
The annual Novice two day tournament saw success for Jeff Gerber's LL 3 team winning gold on Tuesday. Wednesday's action saw the LL 1 Home Hardware Huskies playing a solid first game against Plattsville in a see-saw battle for a final winning score of 6-4. Aggressive forward checking and key passing from Kyle Barr, Ben Herrle and Simon Van Rooyen rewarded the trio with five goals. Jack Wheeler and Matt Eddy showed Plattsville the wall repeatedly, not allowing them into the Dog's zone. Ayden Norley showed his hustle taking the puck from his end to score the final sixth goal with 0.1 seconds remaining.
Game two saw Nathan Roth's LL 4 playing LL 1 with both packs of Huskies squaring off for battle. Barr drew first blood with a pass from Herrle for a one timer that beat Jordan Hopkins. Cody Cowell and Nolan Knezevic both responded with passes from Kalan Spielmacher and Josh James to pull ahead 2-1 in the remaining minute of the first period. The second period saw great rushing and shots from Keith Hunter, Josh Carey and Tanner Snyder that Hopkins kept sending away empty-handed. Ben Baptie, Connor Needham and Griffin Wiens would return the favour to LL 4 by also shutting them out of our zone in the second period. Third period play saw Barr get a hot pass from Van Rooyen for the tieing goal. LL 4's Jack Remple had other thoughts on the game outcome as he fired in the go ahead third goal. Herrle's digging efforts paid off with a pass to Van Rooyen to tie the game at 3-3. Overtime play saw tremendous resilience from LL 1's Josh Felder and LL 4's Hopkins with no goals. After 4 on 4, 3 on 3, 2 on 2, 1 on 1 and finally one more 1 on 1 play, LL 4's Brenden Laroque secured a goal for LL 4's win.
This saw Home Hardware LL 1 playing for the Silver or Bronze against Twin Centre. The Dogs came out charging on a high from just competing in the Skills Competition that saw them win "Best Goaltending" for Felder and "Fastest Skating Relay Race" for Barr, Herrle, Norley, and Wheeler. Keith Hunter and Van Rooyen made it to the finals for the "Shoot Out".
The Barr, Herrle, Van Rooyen trio charged the net for the Huskie's first six goals against Twin Centre with Hunter top shelfing the final goal for a 7-2 victory and the Silver Medal.
On Saturday March 17th the Huskies where back at WRC for regular playoff action against no other than Roth's LL 4 pack. The boys having payback in mind set the tone early with the first full squad since March Break. Shaun Zwosta and Jesse Fay played solid defence holding the line while Thomas Gaille, Presley Schaub and Liam Buck showed grit and determination with solid digging and fore checking. Wheeler, Eddy and Norley all played a solid defensive game with rushing attempts blocked by a solid Hopkins in net. Tyler Clements helped out LL1 with a solid performance in net only allowing Colin McBride to score the lone goal for LL 4. The Barr, Herrle, Van Rooyen trio once again came to play, peppering Hopkins with many shots that resulted with four goals for a 4-1 victory. The coaching staff congratulates these fine young gentlemen with their continuing development and team play.