Hardworking U16 A Boys earn Boston Pizza Cup

The St. Marys Legion U16 A Boys St. Marys Rock won the top prize in the Boston Pizza Cup tournament in St. Thomas Nov. 15-17. Pictured in the front row, from left to right, are Ethan Henderson, Zach Matheson, Cash Flannery and Ethan Culling. In the back row, from left, are Mike Davis, Bob Davis, Hunter Pickel, Kolton McAllister, Cainan O’Doherty, Don McGregor, Ben Ewing, Brody Cox, Nic Brintnell, Zach Larmer, Peyton Wynands, Hayden Wright, Jaxen Brown, Jack Turner, Grayson Gerber, Mark Brintnell and Andrew Davis.

By Spencer Seymour

The St. Marys Legion U16 A Boys St. Marys Rock walked out of St. Thomas with their division’s gold medal, winning the Boston Pizza Cup tournament hosted Nov. 15-17 in St. Thomas.

Head coach Bob Davis summarized his team’s successful weekend with three key pillars.

“They came away with the tournament win because of three things – they played with confidence, they trusted what they have learned and they worked their tails off. We have been working on intensity and mental preparation coming into the tournament and we showed that in our first game against Dorchester.”

Defensively, St. Marys was excellent, limiting their opponents to two goals or less in five of their six games in the tournament. The only outlier was a 3-2 loss to the Belle River Canadiens during the round-robin, a team that would later reappear in the Rock’s path in the championship final.

Davis also praised his team for the speed and ferocity in going after the puck.

“We came out hard and fast, we played as a team and we didn’t change over the entire tournament,” remarked Davis. “We were so tenacious. We played like we wanted the puck at every moment. Our forechecking all weekend was excellent and we gave ourselves opportunities to score consistently.”

In an exciting semi-final, St. Marys took on the host, the St. Thomas Junior Stars, who finished first in Pool A with a perfect four-for-four record in the round-robin, which included a 2-1 win over the Rock.

After the Stars took a 1-0 lead, Ethan Henderson tied it up in the second. The 1-1 deadlock held fast through the end of regulation and five minutes of overtime. A five-man shootout was played to determine a winner and St. Marys saw goals from Jack Turner and Kolton McAllister, while goaltender Cash Flannery only allowed one goal.

The win put St. Marys in the championship game against Belle River. This time, the Canadiens team that scored more goals on the Rock than any other failed to score a single one as Flannery backstopped the Rock to a 1-0 shutout win. The only goal of the contest was scored by Turner, who finished off a beautiful set-up pass from Zach Larmer to tally the eventual game-winner in the first period.

According to Davis, his squad managed to hang onto their one-goal lead for the remainder of the game thanks to the aggressive forechecking and never-say-die mentality they displayed throughout the weekend.

“Once we had the lead, we did two things well. We continued our aggressive forechecking, which kept Belle River frustrated and off balance. We also maintained our possession of the front of our net, which took away any of their good scoring chances. Everyone dug deep and there was no quit in anyone.”