Dec 26, 2023 | Jeff Nantais | 57 views
Storm go 1-3 in the Belle River Tournament
Strong goaltending not enough to hold off strong opposition at the Memorial Tournament in Belle River
The team was confident going into the tournament and despite it being a local tournament the schedule had them up against teams from other regions. It was a great chance to gauge where they are at. In the first game they were up against Niagara on the lake and despite opening the scoring and Jaxon Keller standing tall in the net, the boys lost 4-1. With a second game against a powerful Pelham club, it was a similar result. Carter Russell was unbelievable and stole the boys a point for a tied second period, but the end result was 8-0. Without a doubt that Pelham team would compete very well against local ‘A’ clubs in Bluewater. Saturday morning had the team facing the Oakville Jr. Rangers and this game was a complete reversal from the previous two games. A shuffle of the forward lines had the boys playing like their old selves, being hard on the puck pushing the Oakville defense to their limit. They had a 3-0 shutout broken with 40 seconds left in the third which would have given them a valuable 6 points. The final game of the tournament had the boys against the Sarnia Jr. Sting. Sarnia was a strong skating team and the boys showed signs of fatigue and struggled to get their mojo going leading to a final score of 5-0. It is important to point out that Pelham and Sarnia met in the finals of the tournament with Pelham winning 5-1 in the final. Without a doubt the boys had a tough draw and didn’t play their best hockey, but the objective of tournaments is to play non-Bluewater teams and to see where they stack up.
Article by Coach Larsen