108 years after the first and two months after the second Chicago Cubs World Series win, our Local League Midgets finally broke their own curse, beating the Parry Sound Shamrocks for the first time.
Continued dedication to “team play” and strong game from the defensive fivesome of Lindsay Young, Riley Dunn, Liam Zurbrigg-Tutt, Danny Thomas and Jacob Whitfield was the difference this night as Almaguin held the hometown Shamrocks to mostly low percentage shots.
Parry Sound did manage to open the scoring mid-way through the first, but Almaguin stormed back as Jeremiah Ardiel buried a perfect Noah Haggart feed to knot the game at 1-1. Building on the energy of the first goal, the Ice Devils just kept coming… Highlighting a very strong individual performance, forward Dennis Luckasavitch was the recipient of some excellent cycling on one of many stellar shifts by the Luckasavitch-Sabastian Patterson-Colter Beally line, sliding home what would turn out to be the game winner late in the 2nd. To cap off the evening and with Parry Sound mounting an expected third period rally, Patterson was able to net a huge insurance goal with just over two minutes remaining to seal the win and hand the Shamrocks their first loss of the young season.
With the excitement of Friday night still lingering, Almaguin then faced off against the South Muskoka Bears on Sunday afternoon at SSJ Arena in Sundridge. A wide open, fast paced game saw a final score of 5-5. The Ice Devils opened the scoring in the games first minute as Sundridge’s Jeremiah Ardiel got in alone on Bears goalie Eric Yeoman and made no mistake, beating him for the game’s first goal. Almaguin’s Dennis Luckasavitch would add another home goal, late in the 1st , before the two teams traded 2nd period markers to send the game to the 3rd with Almaguin up by a 4-2 count. 2nd period Ice Devil goals went to Noah Haggart, short-handed and Team Captain Sab Patterson.
Two South Muskoka goals, one early and one late in the final period put the Bears up 5-4 in the dying minutes and seemed sure to give them the win, but the Almaguin determination and effort that has been so prevalent in the past month showed up again as Ice Devil centre Emma Story stuffed in a wrap-around attempt with just 1:38 remaining to give Almaguin a point and run their undefeated streak to five games.