The Novice Ice Devils has a road trip to Haliburton for
their second tournament of the year. They were coming off a tough couple weeks
battling sickness that plagued most of the players, so their effort and
dedication to their teammates was admirable.
Saturday was a full day with three tough games. The first game was against Douro and Almaguin struggled to find their offensive chances in the first half, but played a good defensive game to keep the Douro scoring chances low. Great skating, man to man defence and holding the line from the 7 defence players! In the second period, the offence came alive and Owen Prentice found the back of the net twice early in the third. Aiden Cremer tied it up at 3’s with a slick one timer off a pass from Eric Vincer. Douro managed to slide one more into the net with a minute to play, but the Ice Devils weren’t able to get the equalizer.
The next game the Ice Devils were up against a strong team from Sturgeon Lake. The Ice Devils played both ends of the ice in the first period. The defence held the line, the offence got some nice shots on net and Eloise Worrell made some amazing saves! Owen Prentice opened up the scoring early in the second period for Almaguin with an assist from Eric Vincer. Chris Chatelain hustled hard in both directions keeping close to his man and fending off some good scoring chances. Cole Farquhar closed the second with a nice breakaway goal. The period ended with the Ice Devils trailing by one. Almaguin went into the third hoping to even up the score. Owen Prentice potted the two goals in the third period assisted by Aiden Cremer and Eric Vincer. A solid effort by the Ice Devils forced Sturgeon Lake to play their best game to hold onto the win.
After a very short break in action, the Ice Devils got the ice for their third game of the day and exhaustion was setting in. It was a tough fight, but Almaguin couldn’t put their plays into motion. Aiden Cremer got the lone goal for Almaguin assisted by Owen Prentice.
After some fun in the pool and team building activities at the hotel (pies on the coaches faces due to hard work that day), Almaguin was back at it Sunday morning for their last game of the weekend. The team was hungry and fought hard to the end! Maxime Major Fleming scored the first goal of the game with Mason Croxon-McNay assisting. Quintan McFarlane, Emilia Jarvis, Matthew Wilkie, and Max Durand fought hard to keep the puck in the offensive zone and shut down any chance at a break out of our zone. Nathan Hill took some hard hits in order to keep his man in check. The West Mall Lightning came back strong in the second with three goals, but Almaguin wasn’t giving up. Evan Poljanski scored a beauty in the second to give the Ice Devils a chance to make the come back. Almaguin’s strong defensive play and Eloise Worrell’s quick hands fended off the opponent and didn’t allow any more scoring opportunities. Evan Poljanski netted his second game of the game to tie it up. Neither team gave up many more chances and the game ended in a tie. A great game, with great effort by all to finish off a fun weekend away.
Next week, Almaguin faces the Muskoka Rock at home.