‘We’re probably playing our best hockey of the year’
U16 AAA Petes are hunting for an OMHA gold medal to add to a burgeoning resumé
The Peterborough Fitzsimmons Garage U16 AAA Petes are peaking at the right time.
They’ll need to be at their best to prevail against stiff competition at the OMHA U16 championship tournament, which started Friday and goes through Sunday at Brampton’s CAA Centre. Six of the eight teams in the tournament have been ranked in the OHL Cup Top 10 weekly rankings this season or been an honourable mention.
Peterborough posted a 9-1 record in the OMHA ETA round-robin playoff series to determine two of the eight entries. The Petes are in a pool with the Oakville Rangers, No. 4 in the latest OHL Cup rankings, the York-Simcoe Express (No. 7), and Niagara North Stars. The other pool features the Barrie Jr. Colts (No. 2), Halton Hurricanes (No. 8), Oshawa Generals (honourable mention) and Guelph Gryphons.
The top two teams in each pool advance to Sunday’s semifinals and also clinch a berth at the OHL Cup Showcase Tournament in Toronto starting on March 26. There will be a handful of wild-card invitations handed out by the tournament committee to teams that don’t qualify automatically.
The Petes won the OMHA gold medal two years ago, but last year failed to reach the semifinals. They’ve qualified for the OMHA tourney every year since novice.
They struggled early in the season, hovering around the .500 mark. Things gradually improved with the Petes reaching the final of their own Steve Richey Memorial Tournament of Champions, where they lost in overtime to Oakville. It was a sign they were on the right track and it’s carried into the playoffs, said Jamey Hicks, who coaches the team with Ryan Ready, Brian Hayton and Ron Tugnutt.
“There’s no doubt we’re probably playing our best hockey of the year,” said Hicks. “That’s a real encouraging sign. We’re very fortunate the majority of our team has won this tournament before, two years ago,
so experience is there, as well. We’re excited about being there and how we had to get there. Now let the games begin.”
Hicks believes the adversity the team faced prior to Christmas served it well.
“The plan wasn’t to go through a little skid in November, but in retrospect it made us stronger now,” he said. “A lot of times, if you cruise through a year, you don’t know when you’re going to peak. We knew at that point we had to get better. we put in a little more emphasis and the guys did it. I have a tremendous staff I work with and the guys did a lot of good things the
second half of the year. I’m really happy with the way guys picked up their game.”
The Petes were 1-1 this year against Oakville, 1-0 versus Niagara and 1-2 facing York-Simcoe.
“There are eight good teams there,” said Hicks. “The OMHA is a really strong group this year. The 2008 group has always been strong. We’re expecting great competition.
“We know if we stay within ourselves we have a decent chance. We’ve learned throughout the year when things weren’t going so well what brought us to that point, and when we got the wins later in the year what got us those results.”
The OMHA tournament takes on special significance at the U16 level.
“There’s a lot at stake,” said Hicks. “The teams that make the semis get an automatic bid to the OHL Cup. There are some other scenarios that go on as well and other things at play but, at the end of the day, if you have a good tournament, everything else will take care of itself. We want to go in through the front door.”
The Petes started Friday afternoon against York-Simcoe. A score was unavailable at press time. This game will be followed up by two contests Saturday, against Niagara at 11 a.m. and Oakville at 5 p.m.