The St. Thomas Major Midget Jr. Stars traveled to Sarnia last weekend to compete in the International Silver Stick tournament. The Jr Stars got off to a slow start, losing the 1st game of the tournament with a score of 2-1. The lone St. Thomas goal was scored by Tyler Beauleau, assisted by Cody Taggart. After losing the first game, St. Thomas knew they had to come out firing on Saturday and pray for a little help to have any chance of playing on Sunday and that is exactly what they did!
Saturday morning it was back to Sarnia to play
the Fresno Jr. Monsters from California. The first period ended up 0-0 then
Tyler Beaulieu opened the scoring assisted by Garrett Rinas and Harrison
Luce. One minute later Taylor McArthur scored an unassisted goal to finish the
second period. In the 3rd Trevor Smith scored with Beaulieu getting the assist
then T-Mac got his 2nd of the game with Trevor Smith getting the assist. Ryan
McDonnell scored an unassisted goal late in the 3rd to make the final 5-0 with
Ricky Corkum getting the shutout. Saturday afternoon it was back to the Clearwater
arena to play against the Hollydell Hurricanes from New Jersey. About halfway
into the 1st period Beaulieu opened the scoring again with Rinas and Luce
getting the assists. Then at 4:45 in the 1st Ryan McDonnell scored with Cody
Taggart assisting to end the period 2-0. At 8:41 of the 2nd Beaulieu scored his
2nd of the game on the powerplay with help from Tanner Turley and Dan
Gordon. At 5:02 in the 2nd Turley added a shorthanded goal to make it 4-0. Zak
Jukna made it 5-0 at 4:04 of the 2nd with Beaulieu getting the assist. The Jr
Stars came out in the 3rd period in shutdown mode trying to preserve the
shutout and hope that that was enough to get into the semis on Sunday morning
but HollyDell managed to score at 4:30 in the 3rd on a powerplay making the
final score 5-1. After the round robin was complete we had the Duffield Devils
in 1st place at 3-0, 2nd was the London Bandits at 3-0. 3rd was the Dorchester Dragons
with 2 wins and a tie. This left St Thomas, Cobourg, Collingwood and the host
Sarnia Sting in a 4 way tie for 4th place. Because of percentages St Thomas was
ranked 4th and Heading back to Sarnia Sunday morning to face the 1st place
Duffield Devils who were undefeated in the tournament. The semi- final started
off with both teams playing very cautious as Duffield had 4 shots and St Thomas
only had 3 shots Tyler Beaulieu scored at 3:35 in the 1st period on one of
those shots assisted by Cody Taggart to end the 1st period 1-0. The 2nd period
was also very tight checking with both teams keeping the other outside and not
giving up any quality scoring chances except for about half way through the
2nd Cody Taggart scored a powerplay goal assisted by Beaulieu and Mark Brisson
making it 2-0. Apparently that was all St Thomas needed as Ricky Corkum made
15 saves to get his 2nd of the tournament and a chance to play
Dorchester in the finals. The finals started out well this time it was Dan
Gordon opening the scoring with McDonnell getting the assist but Dorchester
answered back 45 seconds later ending the 1st 1-1. There was no scoring in the
second until 1:11 when Dorchester scored a powerplay goal to end the period
2-1. St Thomas started off the 3rd still shorthanded and Dorchester capitalized
again, making it 3-1. At 13:45 of the 3rd Zak Jukna scored to make it 3-2 with
help from Turley and Gordon. St Thomas pressured to try and even the score but
Dorchester managed to close the door by scoring at 1:58 in the 3rd making it a
final of 4-2 for the Dorchester Dragons. Congratulations Boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Job
well done. Now it’s time to get ready for the OMHA Playdowns where the team will
travel to Essex to play Game 1 of the playdown tournament on Friday February 3
at 7:00pm against Amherstburg. GO STARS GO!!