The St Thomas Lions Club Major Midget Hockey team continues to have a great season!
During the Christmas break they travelled to Stratford to compete in the ‘AA’ Silverstick Regional Qualifying tournament. The Jr Stars opened the tournament with a 2-0 win over the host Stratford Cullitons. It was a close game with no scoring in the first 2 periods until Tyler Beaulieu scored twice in the 3rd with help from Ryan McDonnel, Dan Gordon and Harrison Luce.
The next day the team went back to Stratford for game 2 of the tournament against the Toronto Ice Dogs. It seemed as if it was going to be another close one as there was no scoring in the 1st period. Until Andrew Fenn opened the scoring at 6:38 in the 2nd period with assists from Cody Taggart and Harrison Luce which made it 1-0 going into the 3rd. In the 3rd period, the Jr Stars took complete control of the game, scoring 4 unanswered goals starting with Garrett Rinas getting assists from Will Strong and Trevor Smith. Then Tyler Beaulieu and Zak Jukna each scored with both goals being assisted by Tanner Turley. Ryan McDonnell scored at 2:44 in the 3rd to make it 5-0 giving Ricky Corkum his 2nd shutout of the tournament.
The afternoon game saw St Thomas face the Humber Valley Sharks who were also 2 and 0 in the tourny. This game would decide who would be seeded 1st in the ‘A’ pool going into the semis. The powerplay seemed to be key differentiator as St T got their first goal of the game at 7:25 in the 1st period, scored by Tanner Turley assisted by Zak Jukna and Tyler Beaulieu. St T scored their 2nd powerplay goal at 7:16 in the second period with Garrett Rinas getting help from Zak Jukna to give St Thomas a 2-0 lead. Humber Valley then scored their own powerplay goal at the end of the 2nd making it 2-1 going into the 3rd. Only 30 seconds into the 3rd period Humber Valley tied the game. Mark Brisson quickly responded for the Stars by scoring 2 minutes later with St T's 3rd powerplay marker assisted by Adam Kohler to give St T a 3-2 lead. Humber Valley pulled their goalie to try and even things up but Ryan McDonnell scored on the empty net with 7.6 seconds left to make it 4-2 giving Ricky Corkum his 3rd win in net. On Friday morning the Stars headed back to Stratford to play the semi final round against The Owen Sound Jr Attack. This is the team that St Thomas had lost to by a score of 3-2 in the Owen Sound tournament in September. Owen Sound opened the scoring at 5:47 in the 1st. It was a very close game as there was no other scoring until half way through the 2nd period when Cody Taggart scored a powerplay goal assisted by Ryan McDonnell and Tyler Beailieu. Then at 8:36 in the 3rd period, Garrett Rinas gave St Thomas the lead scoring another powerplay goal assisted by Cody Taggart and Tyler Beaulieu. At 6:55 in the 3rd, Owen Sound responded by tying it up. Owen Sound couldn't seem to stay out of the penalty box and at 3:57 in the 3rd gave St T there 6th power play of the period. Cody Taggart's point shot went off an Owen Sound defender and in - giving him his 2nd goal of the game and sending the Jr Stars to the finals against the London Jr Knights. The Jr Stars battled hard but couldn’t score in the final. St Thomas came home with a silver medal losing 3-0 in the final.
During league play, The St Thomas Lions Club Major Midgets hosted the Woodstock Navy Vets on Sat Jan 7th to play their 1st seeded (AA/A) Alliance game of 2012. The Jr Stars started the year off with a bang, thumping Woodstock 10 to 1. The scoring started at 13:56 in the 1st period with Ryan McDonnell assisted by Brad Daly. At 11:42 Tyler Beaulieu scored unassisted. Just a couple minutes later Zak Jukna scored assisted by Will Strong and Taylor McArthur. At 7:37 Jukna scored his second of the game on a powerplay with help from Beaulieu and Mark Brisson. The St Thomas offense didn't seem to get going again until the 8 minute mark of the second period when Dan Gordon scored with help from Andrew Fenn. Woodstock scored their 1st and only goal at 6:40 of the second. St T answered with Will Strong scoring assisted by Jukna and McArthur. Then with 1:32 remaining T-Mac managed to get one of his own with assist from Garrett Rinas and Taylor Emmerton. 30 seconds later Jukna and Beaulieu teamed up again giving Jukna the hat trick before the end of the 2nd. Woodstock made a goaltending change to start the 3rd period and St Thomas could only manage to score 2 more times. The 1st was Tyler Beaulieu getting his 4th point with help from McDonnell and Emmerton then Rinas put it into double digits with 21 seconds left with Harrison Luce getting the assist. Evan Devries made some solid saves including 2 breakaways to earn his 11th win of the season.
Because of league results and finishing in the final of the AA SilverStick in Stratford over the holidays, the SiverStick Representative was at the game. Apparently he liked what he saw and extended an invitation for the Jr Stars to play in the International Silverstick Tournament to be held January 20,21,22 in Sarnia.
Go STARS Go!