Submitted by Maria Riggin
On the weekend of January 15 and 16th, the Simmons family again hosted the Wade Simmons Memorial tournament in honour of their beloved son and brother. As always, the Simmons family were warm, welcoming and participated in every aspect of the tournament. The Kincardine Bantam Old Stars were happy to be a part of this weekend.
Kincardine met Tiverton at 8 am on Saturday to start off the first game of the tourney. Tiverton's Noah VanVeen opened the scoring assisted by Kaleb Large. The Thunder also scored the second goal with Nick Boyd collecting the honours and Andy Guse catching the assist. Aidan Calcutt from Kincardine answered the call, assisted by Owen Hunsburger. Tiverton's Adam Campbell, assisted by Justin Eby netted the team's 3rd and a minute and a half later, scored again when Blake Taylor nailed one on a pass from Boyd. Kincardine scored their second goal as Brent MacDonald netted one with the assists awarded to Logan Wolfe and Corey Howse. 4-2 going into the third period. The adrenaline was high. McDonald picked up the puck in the Kincardine end and skated it though and scored on a wraparound goal. Rounding out the scoring was a Kincardine goal by Calcutt and assisted by McDonald and Clint Parker with just over a minute to go in the game. 4-4 tie!
Kincardine faced Bruce Penninsula for their second game. This team was shorter in stature and quick on their feet. Kincardine played it safe and did not use much body contact in order to avoid being called for checks to the head or elbowing which are penalties that are easy to get when the opposition is smaller. Kincardine's McDonald scored 2 goals assisted by Parker on both occasions. Wolfe scored on a pass from Calcutt and Calcutt scored assisted by Kaleb Brough and Joel Riggin. 4-3 Kincardine
Sunday Morning: weather: snow and more snow and road closures. With some delays due to weather, Kincardine was finally able to play BCH (Bayfield, Clinton, Hensall). Kincardine opened the scoring midway through the first period with Calcutt taking the honours on a set up by Nikhil Deshpande. A second before the buzzer went, McDonald on a pass from Calcutt and Howse netted one. In the second period, Calcutt walked in alone and scored for K-Town. BCH then lit up the scoreboard for what would be their only goal. Brough, assisted by Braeden Morgan and Jared Allingham tossed one in midway in the third period. As the period wound down, Brendan Murchie shot one in the BCH net assisted by Deshpande. 5-1 Kincardine
After some team bonding over lunch, the boys laced their skates and came ready to play for the tournament championship. It was Kincardine versus Tiverton. Game on! It was a fast paced, hard hitting game. When the snow settled, Calcutt had scored on a set-up by Wolfe, Howse scored assisted by Calcutt, Parker scored assisted by Wolfe and Calcutt, and finally, Brough scored assisted by Calcutt and Taylor Casciano. 4-0 Kincardine. Goalies, Brad Liddle and Matt Strader did an outstanding job in net all weekend. They were cool under pressure. Clint Parker was chosen as the MVP, with Calcutt taking the points crown. By all accounts the weekend was a successful one for the Kincardine team; they had fun, they played well and they played as a team. Thank you to the Simmons family for hosting another fine tournament and allowing us to honour Wade's memory