Nov 20, 2016 | Steve | 883 views
AE Kinucks - Tillsonburg Finalists
The Boston Pizza sponsored Atom AE Kinucks have continued with their steady start to the season. The Kinucks travelled down to Tillsonburg where they would find themselves edged out in the final, against a strong Lambeth team who probably deserved their championship win, in all fairness.
These young Kinucks would face some strong competition in the Tillsonburg tournament as they came up against, Lambeth Lancers, Pelham Panthers and the Listowel Cyclones.
It's very difficult to pick out particularly strong performers when the entire team put in such a heroic effort to get themselves to the final. The goaltending partnership of Jordan Wall and Jack Anderson are certainly a good place to start. With a pair of goalies like that, you know that your team is always in with a chance.
The defensive core of Ryerson Carnell, Murray Collins, Carter Drake and Burton Bronkhorst continue to perform admirably, while the strong shots from the blue line of Collins and Carnell always provide the chance of creating a goal with deflections or some big rebounds for the likes of Palmer, Kaminski, McDonald and company.
In a do or die game, the Kinucks would edge past the Listowel Cyclones with a 2-0 win. Ethan Kaminski and Jordan McDonald would notch the all-important goals.
Next up would be the Pelham Panthers where the kids from Kincardine delivered a superb team performance. The Kinucks would run out victorious with a 4-1 win. Jude Hodgins delivered an epic all action performance in this one as he found himself on the scoresheet, as did the little sniper Mitch Desmond.
The final would see these young Kinucks again take on a strong Lambeth Lancers team, only to be edged out in a 3-1 game. The forward lines of Kaminski, McDonald, Hodgins, Desmond, Palmer and Graham would be buzzing.
In what turned out to be a somewhat fortunate consolation goal, Zak Fletcher would direct the puck into the oppositions net with his skate! As Fletcher piled forward with his marauding forecheck, the panicked Lambeth defenseman fired the puck into the winger and subsequently in his own net! Unfortunately it wouldn't be quite enough to push the team on and get the big W in this one. That said, the player should be particularly proud with the efforts and rapid improvement, in this tough Tournament.
With all of the players mentioned, this team certainly isn't missing talent. However, like many young teams, their ability to regularly provide the require work ethic has to be their goal. Just as they did in Tillsonburg, if they deliver the effort, then their skills provide the results that they're striving for.