Novice LL3 Huskies win Plattsville Little Braves Hockey Tournament
The New Hamburg Novice Local League 3 team sponsored by the Ulmer group, traveled to Plattsville, Ont. on Tuesday, March 13th to participate in the annual Plattsville Little Braves March break tournament. The Huskies
played three games, scoring 21 goals, and played with heart and sportsmanship that gave every coach and parent reason to be proud.
In the first round robin game against another local team from Ayr, the boys from New Hamburg got off to a slow start, but eventually found their groove and started playing as a team. The first period saw goals scored by Joey Gibson, Kaleb Mosberger and Holden Ehgoetz. By the second period, the team was passing the puck very well and playing excellent defence . New Hamburg goalie Tyler Clement kept Ayr off the scoreboard, while Cody West and Owen Burns were rock solid on the blue line. In the second period, Gibson scored his second goal of the game on a great rush from the New Hamburg end, while Hayden Lewis added another to make it 5-0 Huskies.
The third period started off where the second ended with a lot of pressure in the Ayr zone. Four more Huskies’ goals were scored by Max Jantzi, Ehgoetz with his second goal of the game, Jesse Gerber and Nic de Lange. Ayr finally managed to slide one past Clement near the end of the game to break the shutout, as the score ended with a 9-1 New Hamburg victory.
Duncan McAleese was named player of the game for New Hamburg by the Ayr coaches.
Between games one and two for the Huskies, the skills completion took place where New Hamburg had entered a team of four that consisted of Gibson, Weinacht, Lewis and Jantzi. Each skater had to do one lap of the rink and the New Hamburg team posted the fastest time out of all six teams to win the challenge.
In the second round robin game, New Hamburg faced local rival Tavistock. Unfortunately, New Hamburg goalie Tyler Clement came down with an unexpected illness and could not play. Forward, Drew Weinacht stepped up and strapped on the pads for the Huskies.
The game was fairly close in the first period, with chances in both ends of the rink. At the end of the first period though, the Huskies were up 2-0 on goals by Gibson and Matthew Donkers. The second period saw some of the best team work all season by the Huskies, as they passed the puck well and played excellent defence to help Weinacht in net. Four second period goals by the Huskies from Gibson, McAleese, Jantzi and Gerber helped offset two goals by Tavistock to make the score 6-2 after two periods.
The third period again saw more excellent defence from West, Burns, De Lange and Gibson to keep Tavistock’s chance to a minimum. Tavistock was able to get one more past the New Hamburg goalkeeper while Gerber added one more for the Huskies. The final score was 7-3 and Drew Weinacht was named the New Hamburg player of the game for his strong efforts in net. Shane Montag, Mosberger and Lewis also had a strong game for the Huskies.
With a 2-0 round robin record, the Huskies were off to the A championship finals against another strong and highly motivated undefeated team from Twin Centre.
The action in the first period was fast paced with lots of excellent chances for both teams but ended in a scoreless tie. The second period brought many opportunities again for both teams, but it was Twin Centre who scored first forcing the Huskies to play catch-up for the first time in the tournament. The boys continued to work hard and play as a team and less than a minute later they had the score tied up on a nice end to end rush by Gibson. The second period ended in a 1-1 tie.
The boys from New Hamburg came out on fire in the third period keeping most the action in the Twin Centre end. Drew Weinacht broke the tie with a nice goal 2 minutes into the last frame. Shortly after that, Gerber made the score 3-1 on nice wrist shot into the Twin Centre net.
With time winding down and the Twin Centre net open, Holden Ehgoetz fired a shot on goal from just over the red line into the empty net with only 23 seconds remaining to make the score 4-1 and put it out of reach for the opposition. Ehgoetz would add another insurance marker only 7 seconds later off the face off to make the final score 5-1 Huskies and tournament champions!
Tyler Clement, who was able to come back after his illness in the second game was named player of the game for his solid work in net in the finals.
The coaching staff of Jeff Gerber, Luke Ehgoetz, Chris Clement and John Donkers celebrated with the Huskies fans, which were loud and supportive, all tournament.
Ethan Farhood who was injured and Adam Richards who was away were missed from the New Hamburg lineup but hope to be back when they wrap up local league play in New Hamburg.