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London, ON
– The Lambton Sting Major Atom's (AAA) had a
solid showing in their first tournament of the year.
The Sting had two wins and a tie in 4 games and
narrowly missed making the playoffs in the London
Early bird Tournament.
The Sting opened the tournament with games against a
pair of tough opponents on Friday. First up was the
Whitby Wildcats. Trailing 3-2 entering the final
period the Sting would rally to tie the game on a
goal from Brock Barber and the contest would end in
a hard earned 3-3 tie. Spencer Vandenboom and Dylan
Riddell would also score for the Sting with Barber,
Vandenboom, Ryan Barwitzki, Ryleigh Vanderwal and
Kait Isaac earning assists. Luc Thorne-Smith had a
strong game in net to preserve the tie.
Next up was another tough opponent in the Halton
Hurricanes. Nolan DeGurse would score once in each
of the first two periods to give the Sting a 2-1
lead heading into the third. DeGurse's first came
after some nifty passing from Carson Perry and Dylan
Riddell while Josh McLean set up the second marker.
Halton would tie the game up 4 minutes into the
third but Dylan Riddell would blast a wrist shot
just under the crossbar 30 seconds later to put the
Sting back in the lead. Once again Halton would
score to tie the game at 3 but with 4 minutes left
in the game the Sting would strike on the powerplay
as Josh McLean scored to give Lambton a 4-3 lead.
Halton applied all kinds of pressure but the Sting
defense of Ryan Barwitzki, Brandon Neelin, Jaycob
White, Kait Isaac, Matt McIntyre and Jaxon Shelton
along with goaltender Liam McCarthy withstood the
barrage. The Sting took a penalty with a minute
remaining in the game but with the Halton net empty
Jaycob White powered a backhand off the boards and
down the ice. His aim was perfect as the puck slid
into the vacant Halton cage with 9 seconds remaining
to secure a 5-3 victory for Lambton.
With 3 big points on Friday the Sting seemed poised
to make a run at one of the 4 playoff berths in the
16 team field. However, the team took their Saturday
morning opponent far too lightly and the result was
a disappointing 3-2 loss to Elgin-Middlesex. The
Sting had hammered the Chiefs twice already this
season but learned a valuable lesson in not taking
any opponent too lightly. Nolan DeGurse unassisted
and Ryleigh Vanderwal with help from Jaxon Shelton
and Spencer Vandenboom accounted for the Sting
scoring.
The Sting
would face the Oshawa Jr Generals in their final
game of the tournament. The Generals, with 3 wins
already, clinched the division but Lambton needed a
strong showing to rebound from the poor effort in
the morning game.
After a
scoreless first period the emerging Sting powerplay
struck early in the second when Dylan Riddell scored
off of a pass from Nolan DeGurse. That would be all
the offense goaltender Liam McCarthy would require
as he had a great game in net turning aside all 18
shots the Generals threw at him. Spencer Vandenboom
would display incredible stickhandling prowess as he
deked through several Generals players for an
unassisted goal to make it 2-0 midway through the
third period. Vandenboom would do the same thing 5
minutes later with another picturesque goal to make
the final score 3-0 for the Sting. Defenseman Ryan
Barwitzki would get the helper on this goal. The
Sting were shorthanded in the final 45 seconds of
the game and Oshawa had 3 great scoring chances in a
bid to spoil the shutout. McCarthy made 2 huge saves
and the defenseman Jaxon Shelton got his skate in
front of a shot with just seconds remaining to
preserve the shutout.
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