With the odds heavily
stacked against them, the Owen Sound Canadian Tire Jr. Attack Tykes persevered
to open the Georgian Bay Minor Hockey League playoffs with a 2-1 road win over
the Creemore Novice Valley Hawks on Sunday afternoon.
Considering they had not stepped on the ice in over a week due to recent weather conditions wreaking havoc on their practice schedule, coupled with having to be dressed and on the ice within five minutes of arriving by bus because of a rescheduled game time error, the Tykes proved they pack resilience by playing a defensively sound road tilt.
“The coaches couldn’t have been happier with the way the kids came out and played after having all their practice ice times cancelled due to last week’s storms,” said Jr. Attack head coach Rick Corbett. “We played a smart, simple game and we were playing our positions very well.”
Leighton Hurst and Maddox Burgess each scored for Owen Sound while Hunter Stewart, William McMillan, Jaren Pirie and Brian Corbett contributed the assists. Landon Grant replied with an unassisted marker for Creemore.
Though not overly tested, both Ryan Cooke and Alyssa Barnard stood tall between the pipes for the Jr. Attack when called upon.
“We dominated portions of the game,” said Corbett. “If we could have finished in close to the net we would have had several more goals.”
Following two periods of tight-checking, scoreless playoff hockey, defenceman Hurst put Owen Sound on the board with 10:55 to play when he pinched in from the blue line and accepted a nice feed from Stewart from behind the net. McMillan also picked up an assist on the play.
Owen Sound extended its lead to 2-0 less than two minutes later thanks to a dazzling effort by defenceman Lucas McManaman to keep the play alive inside the Creemore zone. McManaman found winger Corbett along the left boards, who made a heads up pass to Pirie in front who tapped it over to a wide-open Burgess who made no mistake to complete the fine passing play.
Creemore cut Owen Sound’s lead in half with just over five minutes remaining but it was as close as the home side would come to mounting a comeback.
“Hopefully we can build on this win and have some success in the playoffs,” said Corbett.
In other GBMHL Novice playoff action, the Collingwood Blackhawks and Coldwater Wildcats skated to a 5-5 tie on Monday.
The Tykes next travel to Peterborough for the Under the Lock tournament, which will be played outdoors on the Trent Canal from Feb. 8-9. They return to GBMHL playoff action when they welcome Creemore to the Bayshore on Feb. 15.