South Oxford Storm U12 A celebrate ‘huge accomplishment’ at International Silver Stick championships

The Ponting Financial Group U12 A South Oxford Storm won gold at the recent International Silver Stick held in Newmarket. The team is preparing for its upcoming league championships. (Contributed Photo).

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

Simply getting to the International Silver Stick finals is a stated annual goal for Ponting Financial Group U12 A South Oxford Storm coach Greg Mitchell.

“To compete and win it is next level,” he said of a 4-3 victory over the Woodstock Jr. Navy Vets in the U12 11U A championship game Sunday, Jan. 19 in Newmarket. “A huge accomplishment.”

Admittedly, Mitchell had been anticipating a rematch with a strong Welland Tigers team which last year, ‘won everything’ (league, Silver Stick and OMHA A) available.

“We were looking forward to playing them again, but they didn’t make it.”

The Tigers were doubled 2-1 in their semi-final, the identical score the Storm got past St. Marys Rock with through a 7:30 a.m. start to set up a Pool A rematch in the final.

“We’re not a morning team, so it was good to win that one,” said Mitchell.

South Oxford had taken a 6-3 win over Woodstock in round robin two days earlier. In that outing, the Jr. Navy Vets had dominated the first period.

“Our goalie kept us in the game,” said Mitchell.

The Storm took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal four seconds prior to the end of the first period. The teams traded two second-frame goals each, with South Oxford scoring the eventual game-winner 4:10 into the third frame, adding an insurance goal 28 seconds later. The Jr. Navy Vets got back within two with 2:10 remaining, but the Storm countered 1:07 later to wrap up the win.

In the final, it was the Storm which got off to a quick start, up 2-0 on goals just 11 seconds apart near the end of the first period.

“And kind of rolling a little bit,” said Mitchell.

Woodstock responded with two unanswered markers in the second 15-minute frame, with 5:50 and 3:49 to play, taking a 3-2 lead at the 1:38 mark of the third.

South Oxford netted the equalizer with 6:31 remaining in the period. With the clock running down, Mitchell was preparing mentally for overtime, when Carter Tryon scored the game and tournament winner with 51 seconds left on the clock, just three seconds after Woodstock had killed off a minor penalty for tripping.

Tryon was kind of skating away from the net said Mitchell, turning and firing a top-shelf shot that would have taken the water bottle off the net, had there been one.

“There wasn’t a water bottle, but that was the shot,” credited the Storm coach. “It was a snipe.”

South Oxford held on through the final seconds for an emotional come-from-behind victory.

“Drama too,” added Mitchell. “It wasn’t a walk in the park.”

Apart from the elevated stakes at the final tournament, a correspondingly challenging level of play added to the experience for the Storm, which had won its regional semi and final games by scores of 10-0 and 7-0 respectively.

“This tournament as a whole was tough. All good hockey games.”

South Oxford opened Pool A round-robin play with a solid 5-2 win over the Kent Cobras Thursday, Jan. 16, following up with the 6-3 win over Woodstock the following morning, and a 5-1 success against the Barrie Colts.

“We handled them pretty well,” said Mitchell.

Having already clinched first place in their pool, the Storm closed round-robin play with a 9-0 win over the Flint Ice Raiders, good for a 4-0 record and a plus-19 goal differential (25 for, six against).

St. Marys was 3-1 in Pool B, its lone loss a 5-1 tournament-opening setback to Welland. Subsequently finding their legs, the Rock defeated Newmarket 7-1, East Nipissing 4-2 and Rochester 8-1 to set up a tight semi-final with the Storm. Welland finished pool play at 4-0, dropping an equally tough semi to the Jr. Navy Vets.

With the Shamrock League regular season games winding down, South Oxford is focussing on getting ready for league championships and its single associated OMHA A berth. A championship will not come easily given the first-placed St. Thomas Jr. Stars (19-2) South Oxford (18-2) and St. Marys (12-8-3) are one-two-three respectively in the standings.

Pool A will feature the first, fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth-placed teams vying for two cross-over semi-final berths against the top two teams from Pool B (second, third, sixth and seventh). The two winners from best-of-three semi-finals will meet in a best-of-three final. The winner will advance to OMHA A championships in Whitby April 4-6.