The Home Hardware sponsored Kincardine Novice Kinucks embarked on what would be a series of losses, following the Christmas break.
The International Silverstick Tournament saw the Kinucks lose three games straight, preventing them from progressing from the group stages. If you were able to make a combination of a Christmas turkey hangover, sick players, poor officiating, bad luck and some strong opposition, you would have the key ingredients for the Silverstick Tournament results, overall.
The tournament commenced with a 6-4 loss to the Listowell Cyclones, followed by similar close defeats at the hands of the Mitchell Meteors and the Tavistock Titans. These results were 4-3 and 5-4 respectively, leaving the players feeling somewhat dejected, leaving a tournament where they were widely expected to reach the final at least. This may sound very strange for a team that lost 3 straight, but on another day they could have easily gone to the final! As they say, that’s hockey!
Hot on the heels of the Silverstick tournament, the Kinucks
were given another jolt of reality when they travelled to Mount Forest for a top
of the division clash. This resulted in a 5-1 loss for the Kinucks. However, in
truth, there was no pot of ingredients that contributed to this loss. Out-skated
and out-played the Kinucks struggled to compete on the large ice surface, which
the Rams took full advantage of. The straight losses left Head Coach Greg Tanner scratching his
head on what he could possibly do next?
The previous games had not been all negative. Along with the
ever reliable goaltending duo of Tanner and Beisel, there was also some stellar
individual defensive displays from Noah Page and Holden Stevenson. The team can
always rely on regular goals from the experienced Cody McLelland and Noah Swann
and it was becoming more and more evident that the rest of the team were
contributing to the offensive numbers. The names of Brock Courtney, Sam
MacTavish, Quinton Pagé, Jesse Pagé, Carson Fletcher and Jared Houghton were
now regularly cropping up on the score sheet.
The opportunity to return to winning ways would come against
local rivals, the Saugeen Shores Storm. The Kinucks would run out emphatic
victors in this one, with a lot of credit still going to the players of Saugeen
Shores who battled hard until the bitter end.
Noah Swann was in devastating goal scoring form for this
game, racking up a superb six goal performance, bringing him to 95 goals for
the season and breathing down the neck of his 100 goal milestone. I think the goal scoring lead is now pretty
secure in the hands of Swann!
As previously stated, other players were also playing their
parts offensively, with further goals going to Cody McLelland, Quinton Pagé,
Carson 'Teddy' Fletcher and ‘The Brock Star’ Brock Courtney.
Equally as important, the players picking up assists were
Sam MacTavish (3), Cam Fletcher (3), Cody McLelland, Quinton Pagé, Jared
Houghton and Jesse Pagé.
Cam Fletcher is not exactly challenging for Noah Swann’s
goal scoring lead, with zero for goals this season, so far. However, the young defenseman can take
heart from this performance, giving him the overall team lead with 16 assists.
He is closely followed by his team mates; Sam MacTavish, Cody McLelland and
Quinton Pagé.
In the end , it was great for the kids to return to winning ways, with
nobody more relieved than Head Coach Greg Tanner. Las Vegas
bookmakers had Tanner at 3/1 on, to be fired, if he lost this one!!