St. David forces Game 3 in D8 hockey final
Series against Phoenix is going down to the wire; Resurrection wins girls’ championship
WATERLOO
— There’s one game left to play and it has the makings of a dandy.
Matthew Young scored a pair of goals Thursday at RIM Park to lead the St. David Celtics to a 4-3 win over the Resurrection Phoenix in the second game of the best-of-three District 8 boys hockey final. The series is now tied at one game apiece — Resurrection won the opener by the same 4-3 count — with the deciding game set for Tuesday afternoon at RIM Park.
Hayden Berger and Cam Hyjek also scored for St. David, which won two of three regular-season games against Resurrection.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it went the distance and into overtime because I know they want to beat us, and we want to beat them just as bad,” said Berger.
“There’s a lot of tension out there but at the end of the game we’re all still friends … but when we’re in the moment, we really go hard at each other.”
Meanwhile at Moses Springer Arena, Resurrection exploded for three third-period goals to sweep their best-of-three girls hockey final with the Celtics. Brooke Hepditch, Megan Fergusson and Lex Schneider handled the scoring, and Morgan Heinbuch-Filipowitsch recorded the shutout as Resurrection won its second consecutive District 8 title.
At RIM Park, the Phoenix got off to the perfect start when Brandon Williams beat Celtics goalkeeper Ethan Bulovas just 41 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Young tied it on the power play midway through the period, jumping on a loose puck and beating Phoenix goaltender Max Parrott from close range.
Zach Ribeiro restored Resurrection’s lead 30 seconds later but Berger tied the game with less than two minutes to play in the period on a nice feed from Young.
Hyjek scored to give St. David a 3-2 lead that was quickly negated by a Josh Helgerman goal. Young scored the game-winner, on a crisp shot from high in the slot, with less than a minute to play in the second period.
Berger was twice robbed by Parrott in the second period, and St. David shooters were iced on several occasions by the Resurrection goalkeeper during the third period.
Resurrection captain Justin Schneider also expects a close game on Tuesday and doesn’t think his squad has to change much to achieve a more favourable result.
“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. We were there today but we just came up short at the end,” he said.
“This series has been a blast. It’s back and forth, back and forth, lots of chances for both teams.”
Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, both teams will move on to compete at the Central Western Ontario level. Resurrection will compete in the triple-A tournament; St. David will compete in the single-A/ double-AA championship.
WCSSAA
The Grand River Renegades and Huron Heights Huskies have advanced to the Waterloo County boys hockey final after both teams completed semifinal sweeps Thursday.
Nine different players scored for the Renegades in a 10-1 win over the Elmira Lancers to close out the best-ofthree series.
Nic Andreotte, Zach Van Wyck, Luke Kozak, Nathan Rowe, Matt Murakami, Ashton Patterson, Adam Kinnear, Logan George and Caleb Hallman scored for Grand River, and Tyler Martin replied for Elmira.
Jacob Salters scored two and Sahrung Sehra added a single for Huron Heights in a 3-2 win over the Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders. Jack Marlow scored both goals for SJAM.
The final is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday night at Activa Sportsplex.