Minor Bantam Petes fall in Icefest semis
The Peterborough Ben Smith Sells Minor Bantam Petes were one opponent away from a Boston Pizza Icefest AAA Hockey Tournament title.
The Petes fell in the final to the only team they couldn’t beat in posting a 5-2 tournament record. The Niagara North Stars followed up a 5-1 round-robin win over Peterborough with a 6-2 victory in Sunday afternoon’s final at the Evinrude Centre.
It didn’t help that Peterborough was without three players to injury and suspension.
“Niagara is a very well coached team and they work hard. Give them credit, they deserved the win,” said Petes’ coach Seamus McDougall. “We’re real proud of our boys. We had a lot of adversity this weekend, a lot of injuries and a couple of suspensions. We can use this as a growing opportunity to come closer as a team. I think we did come closer as a team. We ran out of gas.”
The Petes trailed 3-0 after two periods and when they scored in the third Niagara answered right back.
“It was a struggle because guys were hurt every other game and we had some suspensions,” said Petes’ captain Lucas Moore. “We pushed through to win five games and get to the finals. (Niagara) was a good team and we just couldn’t shut them down.”
The North Stars were opposite story to Peterborough. After dealing with a rash of injuries to start the season this was the first weekend they’ve been healthy.
“It’s been a struggle in the season and we’re finally getting everyone back together,” said North Stars coach David Thomson. “This means a lot because they’ve been working hard.
We’ve asked them to be patient and not worry about the wins and losses right now and they’re starting to buy into that. This weekend was very important.”
Porter Martone and Charlie Blewett scored for Peterborough while Morgan Brault and Wyatt Wiggins had assists. Scoring for Niagara were Calvin Patrovsky, Noah Clarke, Trent Mouradian, Jordan Schanbacher, Jacob Sapienza and Owen Cooper.
The Petes beat the Lambton Jr. Sting 6-3 in the semifinals. On Saturday morning the Petes lost 5-1 to Niagara to finish pool play with a 3-1 record. They beat the North Central Predators 3-1 in quarter-final play.
The BP Peterborough Major Bantam Petes were eliminated in the consolation quarter-finals on Saturday night with a 3-2 loss to the Clarington Toros at the Memorial Centre. They finished with a 2-3 overall record. They lost their final pool game Friday night 6-0 to the Guelph Gryphons. The Billy Smith Sells Major Peewee Petes, who were 2-2 in pool play, faced the North Central Predators in their opening playoff round game. The Predators beat Peterborough 3-0 in the opening game of the tournament and also defeated the Petes 4-1 in the playoffs.
The Ottawa Valley Titans won the division championship beating the Huron-Perth Lakers 4-1 in the final.