Ponting Financial Group U12 A South Oxford Storm takes ‘team’ approach

The Ponting Financial Group U12 A South Oxford Storm won its regional International Silver Stick tournament qualifier in Northumberland, adding a memorable experience to an earlier Can/Am tournament victory in Nashville, Tennessee. (Contributed Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

The Ponting Financial Group U12 A South Oxford Storm took a collective approach to an International Silver Stick regional qualifier victory at Northumberland November 22-24.

“We’re deep,” said coach Greg Mitchell. “Some teams have ‘a guy.’ We don’t have ‘a guy, we have ‘a team’ and we play as a team.”

The qualifier broke into two separate portions, statistically-closer games in pool play followed by what was on paper, domination in the Storm’s semi-final and championship outings.

They played out closer on the ice than the scores indicated said Mitchell, a 10-0 shutout of the Ottawa West Golden Knights in semi-final play, and a 7-0 final result against the Quinte West Golden Hawks.

Both teams provided quality opposition credited Mitchell, however South Oxford’s ability to put the puck in the net when it had the chance stretched out the final scores.

“No game is easy, it’s still good hockey,” said Mitchell. “We capitalized on our opportunities and they didn’t.”

The U12 A Storm had opened round-robin play with an 8-0 shutout of the Perth Lanark Blue Wings, following that up with a tight 5-3 win over the Whitby Wildcats Blue squad.

The following day, with first place in their pool already clinched, South Oxford skated by Quinte West Golden Hawks 4-2 in what would be a preview of the final.

When meeting South Oxford in pool play, both Whitby and Quinte West were undefeated in their leagues, the former 13-0-1, the Golden Hawks 11-0-1, records including a mutual tie. Mitchell says parents from the opposing teams were complimentary about the Storm’s level of play.

“They thought we’d give the AA teams a good go.”

Offensively, Lawson Baker (3 goals, 8 assists), Blake Lauwerier (8/2), Brody Geerts (5/4), Brady Ungar (5/3) Easton Dunn (4/4) and Carter Tryon (6/1) paced the attack in Northumberland. Charlie Donkers (1/2), Gavin Gozzard (0/3), Carter Ponting (0/2), Colton Parrott (2/0), Jeremy Homick (0/1) and Blake Buchner (0/1) also hit the scoresheet.

On strength of the qualifer tournament victory, South Oxford will compete in the International Silver Stick U12 A championship in Newmarket. To date, the draw features the host team, a squad from Flint, Michigan and the defending Silver Stick and OMHA champions from Welland.

The Ponting U12 A Storm is 11-0 in regular season Shamrock League play thus far, 29-3 overall, leading to a #2 provincial ranking in its division, behind St. Thomas. The teams have split two games this season, St. Thomas defeating South Oxford in the final of its own tournament, while the Storm beat their number one-ranked opponents in league play. South Oxford’s other local loss came in an early-bird tournament semi-final game during which they outshot their opponent by a 45-5 margin, only to lose 2-0.

Mitchell credits his squad’s depth as a significant strength.

“We’re a good team, we’re balanced, very balanced.”

The Ponting U12 A’s also won the Can/Am Challenge Cup in Nashville, Tennessee, playing against American opposition a year older. South Oxford opened the tournament with a 6-1 win over Centre Ice Atlanta, and following a 4-2 setback against the North Jersey Avalanche, rebounded to edge the Louisville Ice Cardinals 5-4 and double the Houston Junior Aeros 4-2. In the gold medal final, the Storm skated to a 4-1 win over the Lake Forest (California) Gold Rush, adding an empty-net goal to extend a tight 3-1 score.

“It was good hockey,” said Mitchell.

Tryon had seven goals and three assists in Nashville to lead the attack, Gozzard contributed four goals and two assists and Ungar three goals and two assists.

A signature tournament is part of his approach, striving to make the season both fun and memorable. Nashville replaced a Las Vegas event from previous seasons, taking the flight out of the equation for those who wished to drive to a location with live music everywhere, ‘like going to Disneyland for music,’ said Mitchell.

“You want the parents to have fun too.”

In a nutshell, that sums up his coaching philosophy for his players.

“If they’re not having fun, what are we doing this for?” he asked rhetorically.

Obviously, Mitchell continued, players are having more fun when winning than losing.

“But it’s not win at all costs.”

The coach is also about individual development. Using an extreme example, Mitchell pointed out that Ryan Reaves will never be a better hockey player than Connor McDavid. However, each strives to better themselves within their own framework of expectations.

“We push every practice every game for each individual to be better than themselves, not the guy beside them.”

To sum up, success through personal development within a team framework, while never losing sight of the primary goal of making sure the players are enjoying the experience.

“We want them to want to be there,” Mitchell concluded. “Make it exciting, fun in the room.”