U13 A boys triumph at preseason tournament

The Dunny’s Source For Sports U13 A Boys captured the gold medal at the London Jr. Mustangs Early Bird Tournament Sept. 19-21. Pictured laying on the ice, from left to right, are Matthew McCarty and Luke Savile. In the second row, from left, are Jaxson Parsons, Keaton Ward, Gavin Santagapita, Talon Nov, Talon Ward, Attley Ehgoetz, Joey Brown, Theo Keller, Nick Simons, Owen Leslie-Robinson, Hudson Monteith, Liam Showers, Emmitt Parkinson, Myles Havens and Charles Coppins. In the back row, from left, are Harper Murrell, Jonathan Ward, Mark Monteith, Merlin Malinowski, Jeremy Savile and Deon Keller.

By Turner Roth

The Dunny’s Source For Sports U13 A Boys St. Marys Rock capped off an exciting weekend with a championship win at the London Jr. Mustangs Early Bird Tournament Sept. 19-21.

Head coach Merlin Malinowski was thrilled with his team’s performances throughout the tournament, which was a strong bounce-back after some tough, earlier preseason games.

“I can’t say enough about how good they played,” said Malinowski. “The first two exhibition games we had versus New Hamburg and Stratford, our guys were hesitant, but (on Sept. 19-21), they started to attack and go hard, just the way you want them to play. It’s amazing how fast the new players have begun to jell with the rest of the team, and it feels like they’ve been with each other for more than a couple of weeks by the way they played.”

The Rock played the hometown London Jr. Mustangs Grey in the semi-final and Charles Coppins opened the scoring for St. Marys seven minutes into the first period. The Rock kept up the momentum as they added three goals in the second period by Jaxson Parsons, Myles Havens and Attley Ehgoetz, with London responding with a goal of their own before the period was done.

Both teams scored a pair of goals in the third period, with Theo Kellar and Owen Leslie-Robinson finding the back of the net for the Rock to secure a 6-3 victory and advance to the finals.

“The kids didn’t let up,” Malinowski told the Independent. “We forechecked really well and had good puck position in the offensive zone. It was great to see them all playing that hard and motivated right out of the gate. We have three lines in competition with each other, and you can’t tell the first line from the third line. They are motivating each other and pushing each other to do better.”

In the finals against the Ausable Valley Coyotes, a goal by Havens got the Rock out to an early lead. When the Coyotes tied the game late in the first, Malinowski was proud of how the team responded.

“The final was our toughest game of the tournament,” Malinowski said. “It felt like we were controlling the play and getting the better chances throughout the game. When the opponent tied it up, the boys didn’t panic. They just kept grinding away like they had all tournament, and they handled the adversity well.”

The Rock added three more goals in the second period by Keller, Copins and Leslie-Robinson, cementing a 4-1 win for the gold medal.

“They are good hockey players,” said Malinowski. “The forwards are strong skaters and strong shooters. We’ve got six good defencemen and good goaltending backing it up. I really have high expectations for this group of players this year. As long as the coaches can get them playing on the same page and playing the right way, I think they’re going to have a lot of success this year.”