The Canadian Tire Atoms travelled to Wingham and Blyth over
the past week to participate in the Regional Silver Stick Tournament and
captured the Consolation Championship title on Sunday Dec 08.
The tournament started for the Kinucks on Sun Dec 01 with a match against Tavistock, a team that the boys had yet to face. Both teams came out flying with Kincardine opening the scoring at the five minute mark of the first when Jordan Moulton picked up the puck and deked the goalie out of his jockstrap. Kincardine controlled the play for long stretches but Tavistock was able to tie the game with a bar-down goal from the blue line in the second. Kincardine took control at the eight minute mark of the third when the line of Nate Andrews, Nolan MacKinnon and Wilson Shipp applied the pressure with Shippy banging in a rebound. Four minutes later the Kinucks were awarded a power play and were able to pad their lead with one of the prettiest goals of the season when they picked up the puck in their own end, completed five sweet passes on the fly and finished it off with Jordan Moulton sliding the puck to Jordan Beisel who made no mistake to put Kincardine up 3-1. Just 40 seconds later Tavistock managed to close the gap but Nolan MacKinnon sealed the deal with an empty netter to secure the 4-2 Kincardine victory.
Game two, a late Tues night affair, saw Kincardine face their nemesis, the Mitchell Meteors. The bus trip over seemed to sap the energy out of the Kincardine squad as they came out flat, were out hustled, out skated and outscored to the tune of 4-0. After the Meteors scored two in the first, a goalie change was executed to try and perk up the Kincardine squad to no avail as Mitchell scored two more to complete the shut-out.
Game three was a must-win for the Kinucks and they had to win big to try and secure a spot in the semis. BCH was the opponent and in a fortuitous coincidence their number one goalie was out with an injury. Although the fill-in goalie played well for BCH, the Kincardine squad played with the determination and desperation required to win the game and score as much as they could. The 1-0 score at the end of the first was not flattering of Kincardine’s constant pressure or the coaches’ tactic of pulling the goalie for the extra attacker, but the Kinucks were relentless and eventually secured an 8-2 victory. Darcy Scott opened the scoring from Jordan Beisel, Wilson Shipp scored in the second period assisted by Nate Andrews and Jordan Beisel. Realizing a 2-1 score going into the third would not suffice, the Kincardine squad poured it on and scored six more in the period. First off was a power play goal when Darcy Scott fed Wilson Shipp at the point who went low stick, next up was the two Jordans working a give and go with Jordan Beisel feeding Jordan Moulton who buried the biscuit in close to make it 4-1. Just 40 seconds later on another Kincardine power play, Jordan Beisel lit the lamp, assisted by MacKinnon and Moulton. Goal six was scored with the Kincardine goalie pulled as Nolan MacKinnon pulled the trigger after some hard corner work by Jordan Beisel. Not wanting to let up, and not sure just how much of a goal differential they needed, Kincardine continued to attack with MacKinnon scoring his third from Beisel and Moulton and finally Jordan Beisel finishing the onslaught assisted by MacKinnon and Darcy Scott. Ryan Tanner got the start in net and though not tested often, played very solidly and made the saves when needed.
After all the round-robin games were completed and the computations compiled, Kincardine’s victory gave them the wild card spot in the semi-finals where they would once again face the Mitchell Meteors. The Meteors may be known in the future as Kincardine’s Kryptonite as they once again drained the scoring prowess out of the Kincardine attack. Although Kincardine played a much stronger game than the first Silver Stick meeting against Mitchell and for the most part outplayed the Meteors, they couldn’t solve the Mitchell goalie and with the opponents scoring a shortie and a power play marker in the first, the Kinucks fell to the Meteors by a final score of 2-0.
This semi-final loss sent the CTC Atoms to the Consolation Final against a strong Twin Centres squad. With local hockey guru Doug Kennedy, amongst other supporters in the crowd cheering on the Kinuck squad, the local lads came out on a mission. Their hard work and determination paid off five minutes in when Wilson Shipp fed Darcy Scott on the power play, who then buried a hard wrist shot from the point. Two minutes later, Jordan Moulton went coast to coast and bulged the upper twine on an unassisted tally. The Twin Centres team was under siege but didn’t give up and cut into the 2-0 lead just before the first period ended on a re-direction in close. Kincardine started the second frame on the PP and after some superb passing by the entire unit, Nolan MacKinnon fed Wilson Shipp who scored one from the point. Kincardine then ran into some penalty trouble and Twin Centres had a 19 second 5 on 3 that they capitalized on immediately to cut the lead to 3-2. With just 55 seconds remaining in the second, Jordan Moulton again went shelf to restore the two goal lead, again unassisted. Heading into the third with a two goal margin, the task was to play strong defence, keep the puck deep and not allow odd man rushes which the Kinucks managed to perfection. With strong fore-checking and excellent back-checking by forwards Carson Fletcher, Mac Beisel, Cody McLelland, Nathan Andrews and Cameron Renaud and strong defensive play by Ben Voskamp, Mitch Pyke and Darcy Scott, the Kinucks were able to contain the Stars attack. With three minutes remaining, Jordan Beisel sealed the deal by winning a draw in his own end, taking a pass from Mitch Pyke and breaking in to deke the goalie and slide the puck home. Gordie Reaume was sharp in the Kincardine net, making plenty of key stops to be the winning goalie in the 5-2 Consolation Championship game and bring home the green banner.