Welland Tournament, News, Peewee Local League, U13, 2018-2019 (Walkerton Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2018-2019 season, which is not set as the current season.
News Article
News Article Image
Jan 29, 2019 | Gerald McNaughton | 101 views
Welland Tournament
The Walkerton Capitals would participate in the annual Ernie Clayton Tournament held in Welland, Ontario over the weekend of January 11th-13th, 2019.  The tournament would attract teams from all over Southern and Midwestern Ontario as well as those from the Niagara region.


The Capitals first game would see them play the Woolwich Wildcats from the Kitchener region.  The Wildcats would open the scoring early in the first period only to have the Capitals respond quickly when Logan Bradley would fire a shot from the slot after intercepting a clearing attempt from behind the net that would beat the Woolwich goalie.  Both teams would then settle in for an entertaining period of play.  The Capitals would then take the lead with 20.3 seconds remaining when Cody McIntyre would skate down the wing and pick the top corner with a hard wrist shot.  Walkerton would take a 2-1 lead into the second period.

 

The second period would see Walkerton come out quickly when just over a minute into the period Colby Schmidt buried a hard wrist shot after taking a pass from Matthew McNaughton.  The Wildcats would score midway through the period to pull back within a goal while on the power play.  The Capitals would lead 3-2 after two periods of play.

 

The third period would see the Capitals control most of the play in the Woolwich zone and be rewarded because of it.  Matthew McNaughton would score a goal after taking a pass from Cody McIntyre.  The Capitals would continue to press and Kyle Graul would fire a wrist shot over the glove hand of the goalie after coming in on a break away with 9:16 remaining.  Connor Farrell would score with 3:32 left to go after a goalmouth scramble assisted by Cody McIntyre.  The scoring would continue when Cody McIntyre would skate behind the net and pass to a waiting Matthew McNaughton who buried his second goal of the game.  As the final seconds ticked away Mason Lina would score with 0.01 seconds remaining again assisted by Cody McIntyre.  The Capitals would take Game 1 by a score of 8-2.

 

 

The second game played on Saturday morning would see the Capitals play Stars of the Sea from St. Catharines.  Walkerton would again play a solid game with strong puck control and fine defensive back checking.  Owen Young would open the scoring 4 minutes into the first period assisted by Mason Lina and Logan Bradley.  Just over 2 minutes later Cody McIntyre would fire a shot from just inside the blue line that would beat the goaltender stick side assists were awarded to Mason Lina and Logan Bradley.  Walkerton would lead 2-0 after the first period.

 

In the second period the Stars of the Sea would come out strong and would pressure the Walkerton net.  Walkerton net-minder Caden Champman would play the entire game and was stellar between the pipes.  He would be called upon several times to make key saves throughout the game.  Kyle Graul would score just over 3 minutes into the period after taking a cross ice pass from Owen Young.  The two teams would go back and forth but there would be no additional scoring so Walkerton would lead 3-0 after two periods completed. 

 

The third period would see a lot of the action occur in the neutral zone.  The Stars of the Sea would score on a power play to cut into the Walkerton lead with just over 2 minutes remaining.  The St. Catharines team would then pull its goalie for an extra attacker as the clock ticked down Cody McIntyre would take a pass from Matthew McNaughton and score into the empty net to solidify a 4-1 win.

 

 

Game 3 would see Walkerton play the also undefeated Welland #1 team.  The Capitals would come out early and fire shots on the Welland net only to have the goalie make some outstanding saves.  The two teams would skate up and down the ice at full speed but at the end of the first neither had solved the oppositions goaltender and the game remained scoreless. 

 

The second period and tensions would rise as both teams continued to crash the net.  Each team would receive 10 minutes misconducts after a scrum after the whistle.  With just over 1 minutes remaining in the period Walkerton’s Shawn Lacey would unleash a shot from just inside the blue line that would make it through a maze of players to find the back of the net.  Walkerton would take a 1-0 lead into the third period.

 

In the opening minute of the third Welland would tie the game after sliding the puck under goaltender Seth Young.  Yet again two more players would spend 10 minutes in the penalty box after another scrum.  Welland would then score after a puck would ring off the post and into the back of the net.  Walkerton would continue to press in the final minutes including pulling the goalie for the extra attacker.  The Capitals would not, however, be able to pull even and would drop the game 2-1.  The loss would see Walkerton play East Lambton in the crossover semi-final on Sunday morning.

 

 

The semi-final game would feature Walkerton playing the East Lambton Eagles for the chance to compete in the afternoon championship game.  East Lambton would score twice in the first period to take an early lead.  The Capitals didn’t seem to have the game jump as they did earlier in the round robin games. 

 

In the second period the Eagles would score in the opening minutes undaunted the Capitals would continue to fight back.  Cody McIntyre would skate in off the wing and go over the shoulder and off the cross bar to the back of the net.  During the second period the Capitals would press on several different occasions unfortunately East Lambton would score two late goals and take a commanding 5-1 lead into the third period. 

 

The Eagles would add two more goals in the third and take the game by a final score of 7-1.

 

A great weekend for the Capitals 3 games of excellent hockey and one game where we just appeared to run out of gas.  The boys won’t remember scores or who did what during the games they will, however, have fond memories of the time in the pool, the horse play and the fun weekend that they had.  The boys played some outstanding hockey and each and everyone of them helped contribute to those wins.   The game against Welland was probably the best hockey they have played all year even though they lost.  Goaltenders Caden Chapman and Seth Young did a remarkable job in net and each made some outstanding saves throughout the tournament.