The HockeyStickMan U16 Red Devils wrapped up their regular season this week looking to hold down their top 2 position in the OMHA East.
Thursday night brought the Jr Gaels up the 401 from Kingston. Lawson Minifie got the offense in gear with the first of 8 straight goals taking a pass from Austin Pettey and rifling it home. Ewan Dahle was up next finishing off a nice faceoff play with Trent Clow and Minfie picking up assists. Coen Lowry tucked away a nifty backhand with Pettey and Minifie adding helpers. Andrew Laurin picked off an errant pass and fed Lauchlan Whelan for QRD's fourth of the game. Clow added the fifth of the game from Whelan on the powerplay. Dahle potted his second of the game from Minifie and Cooper Poskin. Austin Preston forced a Kingston turn over deep in their own end and made now mistake bringing the tally to 7 on the evening. Minifie finished off the scoring burying a nice cross ice feed from Jax Martin to make it an 8-1 final.
Saturday and Sunday saw QRD host the OMHA Showcase weekend. The squad had a pair of must win games with a tilt with the York Simcoe Express first up on Saturday. The team found themselves down 1-0 before Lauchlan Whelan picked off a YSE breakout pass and fed Ewan Dahle who levelled the score at 1. QRD would jump out to a 2-1 lead as Andrew Laurin and Whelan connected on a pretty passing play. YSE would level the score at 2 early in the 3rd and that's the way it would stay through the end of overtime. That very valuable point would bring the team within 2 of first place Barrie who dropped their game 4-3 to Ajax.
Sunday brought a must win contest with those same Barrie Colts. The first 2 periods saw no scoring despite some great chances for both teams. The third frame saw QRD take a 1-0 lead as Andrew Dewar kept the puck alive at the blue line finding Andrew Laurin in the corner, Laurin then hit Lauchlan Whelan in the slot to open things up. Barrie would tie things up in a back and forth affair before Ewan Dahle finished off some gritty work behind the net from Trent Clow and Lawson Minifie to put the Devils back in front. In a continuing theme Barrie would tie it up shortly after. In the dying minutes, Coen Lowry and Laurin would combine to set Whelan up for what would be the game winner despite a tense last few minutes. That win, combined with a York Simcoe win over Ajax in the next game, gave the boys a well deserved first place finish in the OMHA East!
We now await our playoff schedule, but we do know our opponents. Home and home series with the Barrie Colts, Kingston Jr Gaels, North Shore Whitecaps and North Central Predators stand in the way for a berth at the OMHA Championship Weekend March 13-15 in Peterborough.