The Gillespie's Tree Service U15 Red Devils were on the road for a pair of games this weekend with the U16 Showcase in town.
Saturday saw a trip up the 401 to Whitby to take on the Wildcats. After falling into an early 1-0 hole, John Korver forced a turnover behind the Whitby net and Austin Preston banged home his rebound to tie the game at one. The score would stay this way until Lauchlan Whelan would force a turnover short handed and skate the length of the ice and bury it to put the Devils up 2-1. Shortly after that, on the same penalty kill, Andrew Laurin would hit Whelan with a nice stretch pass and he would bury his second straight short handed goal for a 3-1 lead. Coen Lowry would bury a third goal in the second period batting in an Austin Pettey rebound for a 4-1 lead heading into the break. Korver would pick up an assist as well. Sadly, it was not to be for the Devils as they couldn't withstand a strong Whitby push and ended up on the wrong side of a 5-4 score.
The team reset knowing they need to run the table to have a chance at a top 2 finish and headed back up the 401 to Clarington to take on North Shore on Sunday. North Shore would take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission before Quinte would shake off their slow start. Lawson Minifie would gain the offensive zone and drop a pass to Ewan Dahle who buried it from the slot to knot the game at one. Quinte would keep the pressure up through the second frame before Lauchlan Whelan would pick the pocket of a Whitecap defender and feed Andrew Laurin who put QRD up 2-1 heading into the break. Andrew Dewar opened the scoring in the third with a solo effort from deep in his own end to put the Devils up 3-1. Coen Lowry would knock in the rebound off a Dewar shot to go up 4-1 with John Korver also picking up an assist on the play. the Whitecaps would get one back before Whelan would cap the weekend with his 3rd short handed marker off a great feed from Laurin for a 5-2 final and a big two points for QRD vaulting them back up to second in the standings.
This week sees a pair of home games at the Wellness Centre with the Greater Kingston Jr Gaels coming to town on Thursday night for an 8:30 contest on the Mackay pad. Saturday sees Markham come to town for the third and final game in the season series. Puck drop is 5:30 on the CAA pad for that one.