U16B Sabres storm to OMHA title

The U16B South Huron Sabres are champions after taking the top spot in this year’s OMHA championships, which took place in Oakville from March 27 to 29. In back from left are trainer Cam Barton, assistant coach Todd Dittmer, assistant coach Colin Gibbings, Winston Finkbeiner, Aubrey Webster, Mason Finkbeiner, Jasper Debruyn, Kaelen Horlor, Reid Barton, Evan MacCuspey, Colton Fedorko, Blake Masse, head coach Marty Debruyn and assistant coach Matt Froud. In front from left are Nolan McCann, Finn Theophilopoulos, Dan Dittmer, Logan Parsons, Graeme Froud, Kallen Grant and Jason Govers.

By Dan Rolph

"It’s a special group.”

That is what U16B Sabres head coach Marty Debruyn said of the team that went all the way to become all-Ontario champions at the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championships from March 27 to 29 in Oakville.

The team’s season may have been a dominant one, but they got a strong reminder of skill of the teams they were up against when they dropped their first match of the tournament, losing 1-0 to the Kawartha Coyotes.

Debruyn said that loss was exactly what the team needed.

“It was a bit of a reality check,” he said. “The boys needed to know that they had to put a better product on the ice and play better.

“It put us in our place and let us realize what it would take to win. The boys never looked back after that loss.”

After dropping the first match, the team found their stride and went on to shut out the Sturgeon Lake Thunder, pulling off a strong 6-0 win.

They kept that momentum into the second day of the tournament with a pair of wins against the Douro Dukes that put them into the final on day three.

“After that first loss, we just rolled,” said Debruyn. “It was like there was no doubt. Nobody could really touch us after the boys decided they wanted to win.”

In the final, the team was once against facing the Kawartha Coyotes, who handed South Huron their only loss of that weekend.

But the final was far from a repeat of their first meeting.

South Huron was first on the board, but Kawartha replied with their own goal to push into the second frame on equal footing.

A dominant second period from the Sabres put them ahead when they racked up three goals. Though Kawartha found one more goal in the third period, it wasn’t enough to close the growing gap in scoring as the Sabres found two goals, putting the game at 6-2 in favour of the Sabres by the final buzzer.

“It was a lot of elation and happiness,” said Debruyn. “The boys have won a lot of stuff in the last few years, but never an all-Ontario. To get that all-Ontario, everybody was pretty happy.”

DeBruyn said it is difficult to name specific highlights for the team after a solid season, but he said seeing the faces of the players and the coaches in the last seconds of the final was special, especially with a team that included players from outside their centres.

“I felt relieved that those boys got to win an all-Ontario,” he said. “I knew we were the team to beat, so if we wouldn’t have won, it would have been a little disappointing with the season we had.”

For Debruyn, who is hanging up his hat as head coach with the season’s end, the win was the perfect way to cap off the journey.

“It was a pretty awesome way to end it,” he said.