Hurricanes fall short of finals in Southern Tier Novice Cup Tournament
The Halton Hurricanes traveled down the QEW for the weekend to Fort Erie, taking part in the 18 team AAA Novice Cup Tournament. This event featured 4 divisions of 4-5 teams in each, with the top 2 teams in each division advancing to the playoffs on Sunday.
In game 1 on Friday, the Hurricanes took on the Central Ontario Wolves. After a scoreless 1st, the Wolves struck first taking a 1-0 lead just 2 minutes into the 2nd period. Preston Sedlezky tied the game with a goal (assists from Anthony Terkalas and Hayden Cochren) just 1:30 later and the teams headed into the 3rd tied at 1's.
Defenseman Liam Fay would break the tie in the 3rd, finding the top corner from the point (assist to Evan Meehan) and the 'Canes locked it down defensively the rest of the way for the victory.
Despite the close score, the Hurricanes outshot the Wolves 18-4 with Brayden Park picking up the W in et.
Game 2 saw the Hurricanes take on the Barrie Jr. Colts and again Halton would dominate the shot clock outshooting Barrie 9-2 in the first and taking a 2-0 lead. Cochren (assist Tyler Hickey) and Hudson Day (unassisted) were the goal scorers.
In the 2nd period, Sedlezky scored at 2:25 and James Del Duca scored 31 seconds later (from Colin Mayberry) moving the lead to 4-0.
Barrie carried the play late in the period, and scored twice to close the gap to 2 goals but that's as close as they would get, as the 'Canes exploded for 5 third period goals to blow the game open and move to 2-0 in the tourney. Sedlezky (from Terkalas), Rory Parker (unassisted), Terkalas (unassisted), Day (unassisted), and Parker (2nd, unassisted) hit the board in the 3rd.
Owen John picked up the W between the pipes.
The Hurricanes came back Saturday to complete their round robin schedule with 2 games against Hamilton based teams. The early contest had them face the Huskies and the Hurricanes again threw all they could at the net - putting up 35+ shots over the course of the game. Nolan Lillicrap scored (from Calum Reilly) on a powerplay in the 2n and Willie Clahane (from Lillicrap and Mayberry) in the 3rd gave the 'Canes a 2-0 lead. The Huskies scored a late goal to make the final 2-1 for the Hurricanes.
Owen John got the W for Halton, who moved to 3-0 and clinched 1st in the division with the W.
The last round robin game saw the Hurricanes face the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs. Terkalas got the 'Canes going with a goal 22 seconds into period 2 (unassisted), and Reilly followed that 1 minute later (from Ethan Gatto) to stretch the lead to 2-0. Lillicrap potted one, 27 seconds after the 2nd goal (from Reilly) and Ethan Gatto scored on the PP at 8:13 of the 2nd to put Halton up 4-0. Hamilton got one back before the end of the 2nd, but the 'Canes would add 2 more in the 3rd to put this one on ice (Del Duca, from Terkalas and Parker from Del Duca).
The Hurricanes wrapped up the round robin with a 4-0 record, good for first place in division C and their quarterfinal matchup on Sunday ended up being a familiar opponent, the Oakville Rangers.
Day scored early in the 1st period, and Fay scored in the 2nd to put Halton up 2-0. With the 'Canes on a powerplay in the 2nd, Oakville ended up with a clean breakaway but Owen John shut the door with a key blocker save preserving the 2-0 lead. Shortly after that huge stop, Del Duca would score for the 'Canes, moving the lead to 3-0.
Oakville would slip one past John in the middle of the 3rd, but Day scored his 2nd of the game to round out the scoring and give the Hurricanes a 4-1 win.
Now into the semi-final, and still undefeated the Hurricanes took on the Lambeth Lancers, who were also undefeated and had outscored their opponents 34-7 over 5 games.
After a scoreless first period, Lambeth broke the scoreless tie in the 2nd with a goal and then added a 2nd goal early in the 3rd period.
Terkalas fired one home with just over 2 minutes to go in the 3rd to pull the 'Canes within 1, and the team had goalie Brayden Park on the bench for the final 2:22 as they pushed to get the equalizer.
Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, they were not able to tie the game and the teams' tourney came to an end in the semi-finals with a 2-1 loss.
Overall, the club went 5-1 scoring 24 goals and only allowed 8 goals in 6 games.
The Lambeth Lancers went on to the final and dropped a 6-3 contest to the host team (Southern Tier). Congrats to both Southern Tier and Lambeth for their achievements over the weekend. The tournament was a very well run event, in a great facility with some great opponents.