The Canadian Tire Atom Rep Team finished off the Regular
Season with a win against the Saugeen Shores Storm after capturing the
Consolation Title at the West-Grey tournament in Durham the previous day.
The CTC Atoms travelled to Durham on Sat. Jan 04 for a one day tournament and started the action against a familiar foe, the Saugeen Shores Storm. Having beaten the Storm twice in mid-December the locals were confident but wary. The team was suffering from the after effects of a flu bug and missing some important cogs in the machine. The first period was tight checking with Saugeen carrying the play to some extent but it was Kincardine who would open the scoring in the second. Novice call-up, Quinton Pagé picked the puck up at the Storm blue-line, made a couple of moves and went shelf to spot the Kinucks the lead. This lead would hold up until the six minute mark of the third when the Storm got a bit of a lucky one when goalie Ryan Tanner made the save on a high shot which bounced off his shoulder, into the air and landed behind him and into the net. The tie held up until the two and half minute mark when Saugeen Shores scored a high wrister seconds after a Kincardine penalty expired. In a short tourney this proved a costly loss for the CTC Kinucks.
Next up was a tilt with the Shelburne Wolves in which Kincardine had to win and win big just to secure a spot in the Consolation Final. With one sick player returning to play and another Novice added to the line-up, the boys were ready to go and proceeded to give the Shelburne goalie a sunburn as they lit the lamp eight times to Shelburne’s one. Once again, the diminutive Quinton Pagé showed his mettle by claiming the hat-trick. Defenceman Darcy Scott notched a pair with singletons going to Wilson Shipp, Mac Beisel and Jordan Beisel. Assisting on the scoring onslaught were Cody McLelland with three, Cameron Renaud, Jordan Moulton and Carson Fletcher with a pair, and singles going to Ben Voskamp and Pagé. This well balanced scoring and strong defence by Wilson Shipp, Darcy Scott, Ben Voskamp and Nathan Arnold led to a 8-1 victory.
After a flood, the Kinucks were rested and on to the Consolation Finals against the Bruce Peninsula Predators. The CTC boys dominated the play and scored two minutes in when Cody McLelland made a nice pass to Wilson Shipp at the point, drove the net and tipped in the Shippy point shot. Just two minutes later, Jordan Moulton tipped in a Quinton Pagé shot to give the Kincardine team a 2-0 lead. The Predators cut into the lead three minutes into the second but two minutes later the two goal lead was restored when Nate Andrews banged home a rebound, assisted by Nolan MacKinnon and Darcy Scott. The Kinucks played the rest of the match as if the puck was on a string with crisp passing, aggressive forechecking and strong defensive stands only to be thwarted again and again by the Predator goalie who had the crowd buzzing with his outstanding play to keep the score at 3-1 for Kincardine who claimed the Consolation Crown.
The next day, in their fourth meeting in less than a month, the CTC Kinucks closed out the regular season by hosting the Saugeen Shores Storm. Determined to reclaim their supremacy after the tough loss the day before, the Kinucks came out on a mission. Just seventeen seconds in, Jordan Beisel picked the puck up in his own end, skated the length of the ice and buried a hard wrister five-hole. Four minutes later, it was Jordan Moulton’s turn as he too buried a hard wrister, this time high stick side. Assists went to Carson Fletcher and Quinton Pagé. The Storm weren’t going to go lightly and they carried the play for much of the second only to be denied by the strong Kinucks defence and the goaltending of Gordie Réaume. The Canadian Tire boys started the third with a goal one minute in to take a 3-0 lead when Pagé and Moultsy worked a nice give and go with Moulton burying the biscuit low glove side. The play was back and forth for the rest of this tilt with the Storm managing to break the shut-out with three minutes to play but that was all the scoring they could muster as the game ended in a 3-1 Kinucks win to finish off the regular season schedule.