The Home Hardware Novice Reps had a great weekend of hockey. On Friday night they beat southern rivals Goderich 3-2 and followed it up on Saturday beating Listowel 3-1. The Kinucks won the round robin between the three teams and will now play Listowel in a best of 3 to complete the season.
On Sunday the Kinucks traveled to Listowel for the Gord Hymers Novice tournament. With Brennan Long on the disabled list Kincardine played with just eight skaters against Stratford. After playing the entire first period on defense with Jake Colley, Emma Swift opened the scoring in the second period while playing centre. Bryce McFadden then scored two from the point with Austyn McArthur adding one more in the third. The Kinucks beat Stratford 4-0.
Again with only eight skaters, the Kinucks faced tournament favourites St. Mary’s. Kendon Zettle opened the scoring early in the first with an assist from Jacob Bishop. Bishop played the entire first two periods on defense with no breaks. St. Mary’s responded with three consecutive goals.
Zettle started the third period with a big goal after stick handling past the St. Mary’s defense and goalie to make it 3-2. Christopher Coady was tenacious in the offensive end, pinning the St. Mary’s defense and preventing any chances on goalie Jamie Brock. With less than a minute left the Kinucks found themselves down one goal and Brock out of the net for a sixth attacker. McFadden fired a two line pass, tape to tape, onto the stick of Darian Kuz as he raced for a break-away with less than ten seconds left from centre ice. The crowd was memorized as they looked back and forth from Kuz to the clock. Kuz crossed the blueline, looked up and fired a shot past the glove side of the defeated St.Mary’s goalie. The game was tied 3-3 with less than 3 second left on the clock. The Kincardine fans went crazy with excitement.
In overtime, however, the 15 skaters of St. Mary’s posed too much as they went on to beat the shorthanded Kinucks 5-3. Bryce McFadden played all 35 minutes of the game on defense.
Goalie Jamie Brock celebrated his ninth birthday in style winning the shoot-out skills competition against every other team.
Coach Mark Long was very proud of the team – they worked so hard with just eight skaters and deserved all the credit in the world.