Feb 09, 2014 | pettigrewb | 1048 views
Major Bantams are heading to the OMHA Quarter Finals
The Gaviller and Company Major Bantams are playing great hockey and it could not come at a better time of the year. Since winning the Christmas Classic Niagara on the Lake tournament in late December they have an 11-2-2 record, including 7 wins and 2 losses in the first 2 rounds of the OMHA's
Game 1 Wednesday night was played in Woolwich. Owen Sound played a good game and outshot Woolwich 30-19, but on this night Woolwich was the better team handing the Accounting crew a 3-0 loss. Woolwich now needed only 1 win to move on the OMHA Quarter Finals. Jack Armstrong took the loss in goal for Owen Sound, but played well between the pipes stopping 16 of 19 shots and kept it close. Unfortunately on this night, his teammates were not able to find the back of the net, and the Jr. Attack Bantams found themselves down 1 game in the best of 3 series.
Game 2 Saturday at the Bayshore saw the Owen Sounders come out of the gate strong and went onto to 6-2 thumping of the Woolwich squad. Owen Sound found their legs, and despite being outshout 28-22 they made their shots count on this night. Scoring for Owen Sound were Matt Lyall from Lavergne and Vardy, Scooter Dodd from Matt Struthers, Scooter Dodd again from Noah Rouse, Brady Brown from Maddock and Prior, Kurt Long from Vardy, and Andrew Vardy unassisted. Reese Pettigrew played a strong game in goal, stopping 26 of 28 shots he faced earning the Win. With the win Owen Sound tied up the best of 3 series 1-1 with game 3 the following day back in Woolwich.
Game 3 Sunday was a good tilt from the drop of the puck. As expected Woolwich came out strong on home ice, and each team traded shots, penalties, hits but no goals. The Jr. Attack crew found their game legs and were told by coach Saunders to come out strong and own the 2nd. 59 seconds into the period Owen Sound captain Andrew Vardy got the boys on the board from Lawrence and Maddock. Half way through the 2nd Noah Rouse potted a nice goal from some hard work by Scooter Dodd in the corner and the Jr. Attack held a 2-0 lead. With 1:05 left in the 2nd while on the power play, Woolwich made a game and after 2 it was 2-1. The 3rd period saw some great saves at both ends, some solid D, and end to end action. With 3:25 left in the 3rd Vardy and Lawrence got away on a 2 on 1 and made no mistake when Lawrence took a pass from Vardy and buried it. The Owen Sound bench erupted. Owen Sound then played a dump and chase game for the balance, not allowing Woolwich to get any Offensive zone set up, and as the puck headed down the ice with 5 seconds left you could see the smiles and the celebration started. Reese Pettigrew got the nod again between the pipes and got the win for the Gaviller & Company Bantams with another solid game between the pipes stopping 22 of 23 shots he faced.
Owen Sound will now face either Burlington or Oakville in the best of 5 OMHA Quarter Final series commencing next weekend.
You all showed great determination, grit, team play and the drive to succeed, after being down 1 game, having to win 2 in a row and you did just that. You are in the Quarter Finals of the OMHA play downs, which is quite an accomplishment and you should all very proud of this. it doesn't get any easier in the next round, but as the Coaching staff said tonight, if you play hockey like you have been playing, you can beat any team out there and they have no doubt in their minds of that. Well Done Boys!!!!!
Petti