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Burlington wins in OHA Jr. Tourney for 4th time

VAUGHAN--Burlington Cougars made short work of the Toronto Junior Canadiens scoring a 4-1 victory to capture their fourth division championship in the 11-year history of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior Hockey Tournament at The Sports Village Complex at Vaughan, Sunday.

Meanwhile at Fort Erie, the Meteors defeated the Niagara Falls Canucks 5-2 to win their second division title. In semifinal play, Niagara Falls edged the Thorold Blackhawks 3-2 in the second period of overtime while Fort Erie topped the Port Colborne Sailors 7-4 to enter the championship round.

“We came into this blind, not knowing what the other teams were like, and played our game. The coaching staff rolled the lines, it was a good game by everyone,” said Cougars General Manager Barry Rice.

Coach Wes Wiseman and his coaching staff were aware of what was at stake in the final, and in the end what the club had accomplished, but because of his commitment to a family birthday, Wiseman left the rink not knowing his club’s reaction to the win.

“The difference between this team and the ones we’ve had for the last two years definitely is the speed. We have some older players this year...the good players like (Sean) Wilson and (Brenden) Thenhaus...that we had last year have matured.”

“Mainly it is age and speed because under the new rules (can’t be used for anything except playing the puck) we re-tooled and went for a lot of speed and skill. That has really worked for us plus our goalkeeping has been exceptional.”

Goalkeeper Oliver Wren, who was used in a platoon situation last season, shone in the tournament as the Cougars number one netminder, and in the process beat out Kyle Wetering and Jared Docking to be Most Valuable Player in the competition.

Ten teams took to the ice Thursday night to open the competition. By Sunday afternoon, that number was whittled down to two--the Cougars and the Toronto Junior Canadiens. Both clubs play in the OHA Provincial Junior A Hockey League.

Burlington advanced to the final by defeating the host Vaughan Vipers 2-1 with an unassisted goal by Andrew Dovey at 8:57 of the third period. The play was somewhat bizarre in nature. The Vipers in an attempt to clear the puck from a goalmouth scramble bounced the puck off Dovey and into their net.

Andrew Fucile scored the opener for Vaughan on a first period powerplay set up by Danko Moronovic and Paul Rodrigues with Jeff Bailey of the Cougars in the penalty box. Cougars tied the score later in the period as Wilson connected with Vaughan’s Nikolas Knights off the ice. Jordan Gray and Dan Brewer drew the assists.

In the other semifinal, Toronto downed the Ajax Attack 7-4 with a pair of empty net goals during the final minute of play. Toronto led 5-3 after two periods only to have Ajax pull to within one on a powerplay goal by Mike Aiello at 3:13 of the final frame.

Toronto received a pair of goals each from Wetering and Kyle Munce with singles from Wilson Ngai, Docking, and Stefan Smith. Docking and Kyle Ventura assisted on two goals each with Ngai setting up another. Shane Heffernan replied with two goals and Dan Ciampa added another to go along with Aiello’s goal for Ajax. Ciampa set up two plays, as did Ryan Algar.

In the championship match, Burlington was outshot 13-10 by the Canadiens, who opened the scoring at 6:12 of the first on a powerplay goal by Peter Mrksic only to have Mike Folkes tie it up two minutes later. In the second, the game swung in Burlington’s direction and they never looked back.

Chris Downey, Wilson and Gray completed the Cougars scoring. Folkes set up a pair of scoring plays with Gray, Wilson, Stuwart Stefan, Scott Godfrey-Wilson and Brewer drawing single assists.

By Larry Robertson

For more information contact:
Moore Sports Tours at (905) 513-6901

 

 

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