The Environmental 360 Solutions U16 Red Devils find themselves involved in a four-team logjam at the top of the OMHA East after picking up two wins in three starts over the past week.
Quinte routed the North Shore White Caps 6-2 in Darlington Thursday and thumped the North Central Predators 7-3 at home on Saturday to remain in third place heading into Sunday’s game against the fourth-place Ajax-Pickering Raiders. But a 4-3 loss in Ajax dropped the Devils one point back of the Raiders and into fourth place with 13 points. Despite the loss Quinte trails front-running Barrie and York-Simcoe by just three points.
The Red Devils got a goal each from Nate Rashotte, Cole Coughlan and Mac Chisholm in Ajax with Rashotte’s goal coming with 38 seconds left in the first period on the powerplay, evening the count 1-1 before the Raiders took 3-1 and 4-2 leads in the second set. Chisholm lifted Quinte to within a goal with 48 seconds to go in the period then Devils’ goalie Lily Reid and her counterpart at the other end of the rink blanked all shooters in the third. Blake Munnings, Henry Fisher and Isaac Tracze had an assist apiece for Quinte.
The North Central Predators were 7-3 losers in Belleville Saturday against the Devils at the CAA Arena. Quinte’s powerplay accounted for three goals with two coming just 2:02 apart late in the first period.
The Devils fell behind 1-0 in the opening set but led 2-1 at the end of the period on goals from Ty Leavitt and Ryan Sherwin, both coming with the extra attacker. Nick Colson and Ryan Foley scored to put Quinte ahead 4-1 with the second period’s only two goals. After the Predators cut the Devils lead in half early in the third, Cole Rowat and Tracze upped the count to 6-2 before Foley’s second goal, the Red Devils’ third on the power play, came 61 seconds after North Central had narrowed the gap to 6-3. Foley (one assist) and Leavitt (two helpers) had three points each while Munnings (2), Chisholm (2), Tracze, Rowat, Rashotte and Jake Gawley also assisted for the winners. Ayden Mullens took the win in net.
In Darlington Thursday the Red Devils notched three goals in the third period to turn a 2-0 lead into a 6-2 victory over North Shore. Quinte scored once in each of the first two periods before Foley gave them a 3-0 lead with the eventual winner at 1:11 of the third. The White Caps finally ruined Reid’s shutout bid at 4:55 of the final frame, but that’s as close as they’d get.
Leavitt and Seth Scaletta scored minutes later, just minutes apart, to extend the Red Devils lead to 5-1, then Rashotte made it 6-2 late in the final period with his second goal of the contest. Pierson Clute had a goal and two assists for Quinte with Scaletta also registering a three-point night. Chase Cybulskie, Chisholm, Tracze, Foley and Leavitt chipped in with an assist each.
On Deck: This coming weekend the U16 Red Devils will play two games in Bowmanville at the OMHA loop’s Showcase Crossover Event. They’ll faceoff Friday against NOHA Team-1 prior to a Saturday encounter with the Halton Hurricanes, the OMHA’s top team at 9-and-2.