Young Red Devils boys’ hockey team takes a step forward

Ingersoll DCI Blue Bombers K. Winkworth (left) and B. Randall (right) separate Dorchester’s Sheldon Gaerts from the puck. (Jeff Tribe Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Post Correspondent

Stepping back from the disappointment of a 4-1 season-ending TVRA South East quarter-final playoff loss to the St. Thomas St. Joe’s Rams Feb. 12 in St. Thomas, it was easier to see a young Woodstock CI Red Devils boys’ hockey team had taken a step forward over the Thames Valley Regional Athletics campaign.

“Definitely building for the future,” said Red Devil and Brantford 99’er Aiden Silos, one of the squad’s Grade 9 rookies, a contingent he estimates makes up ‘half the team.’

Silos scored his team’s lone goal, picking up a loose puck along the wall and cutting toward the St. Joe’s net.

“Shot short side, low glove and it trickled in,” he reported.

WCI goalie Thijs Van Haeren had a busier day between the pipes, making several quality saves to keep the score close.

“They’re pretty good,” he said. “Just give them what we’ve got.”

It had been hard to get their game going against a physically larger, more mature team admitted WCI’s Quinn Roberts.

“Battled hard though.”

Red Devils captain Everett Carne, one of the squad’s senior students, said the Rams had won OFSAA the previous season, and while losing a few players, were still a solid unit.

“Not disappointed, a good effort,” he said, a statement applying to both this game and a 3-5-1 regular season. “A lot of games were winnable.”

“We were in every single game,” agreed coach Mike Hall, pleased with his young team’s development and how things had played out through a competitive TVRA South East campaign, with the notable exception of an injury suffered in the game’s final five minutes.

“No complaints, it was a pretty good season, minus that.”

TVRA South East Quarterfinals

Lord Dorchester 4, Ingersoll DCI 2

“Tough game,” summed up Ingersoll DCI Blue Bomber Josh Robles following a one-goal loss in what the squad felt was a winnable game.

“One hundred per cent,” Robles continued. “Lots of opportunities.”

Ingersoll’s K. Whetstone opened scoring at the 8:16 mark of the first period, assisted by B. Randall. Dorchester’s Sheldon Gaerts squared accounts at one 5:42 into the second frame, Blue Bomber R. Gregg restoring IDCI’s one-goal lead two-and-a-half minutes later, with help from Robles.

Gaerts’ second of the game tied things up with 37 seconds left in the second. His teammate Emerson Monk would score the eventual game-winner with 5:03 left in regulation. A cross-checking minor penalty to Dorchester gave the Blue Bombers a power play with 47 seconds remaining, their best chance coming off a cross-ice pass from Jeremy Stiles from the right-wing boards.

“Just missed it,” said Stiles.

Gaerts locked up both the win and a hat-trick with an empty netter seven seconds before the final buzzer.

The season had been enjoyable said Robles, competing with a ‘good group of guys.’

“We played pretty good,” concluded Stiles, whose focus, with the loss, turns to Shamrock League playoffs with the South Oxford Storm.

“On a wagon right now.”

TVRA South East Boys’ Hockey Quarterfinals

St. Joe’s 4, Woodstock CI 1

Dorchester 4, Ingersoll DCI 2

St. Thomas Parkside 4, Woodstock St. Mary’s 1

Tillsonburg Glendale 5, Aylmer East Elgin 0

TVRA South East Girls’ Hockey Playoffs

Pool A Best-of-Three Semifinals

Feb. 12

Woodstock CI 4, St. Thomas St. Joe’s 2

Feb. 14

St. Joe’s 4, WCI 3

Feb. 24

WCI at St. Joe’s, 12 p.m.

Pool B Semifinals

Feb. 12

Aylmer East Elgin 7, Woodstock Huron Park 2

Feb. 20

Ingersoll DCI at Glendale, Score Pending