Atom Reps Win WOAA Championship
The Atom Reps have once again claimed the WOAA Championship title by first defeating Goderich in four games and then finishing off Mitchell in five games.
The Atoms faced a strong Goderich Sailors team in their first round of playoffs and found themselves down one game after losing a hard-fought battle on the road by a score of 1 - 0. Without the great goaltending and lots of timely saves from Braeden Ellis, the score could have been much worse. The boys came back to Listowel for the next two games and won them both, 4 - 0 and 3 - 2. Game four took the team back to Goderich again, knowing that a win would eliminate the Sailors. The boys came out flying and scored the first goal of the game just ten seconds into the match with a nice shot from the blue line from Josh Gottfried. The final score was 4 - 2. Gottfreid led the charge with a hat-trick, assists from Wade McPhee and Bryce Fletcher, and McPhee scored one with an assist to Fletcher. The team was headed to the finals against Mitchell!
Game 1 was in Mitchell and the home team lit the lamp first halfway through the first period. Lane Buchanan tied it up early in the second on a nice pass from Carter Collinson. As the buzzer sounded to end the second, the ref awarded Mitchell a questionable penalty shot. Unfortunately, the shooter beat the goalie to put them up 2 - 1. Mitchell scored again early on in the third and the Listowel boys couldn't solve the Mitchell goaltender. Mitchell wins 3 - 1.
Games two and three were back at home again. In game two on Saturday, the line of Gottfried, McPhee and Fletcher led the scoring again with Gottfried with two goals, Fletcher with one goal and two assists, and McPhee with one assist. Reese Johnson also added a marker with assists from Collinson and Parker Yungblut to end the game with a 4 - 2 win.
Game three was played before a great hometown crowd on Sunday afternoon. The first period was back and forth and ended with no scoring by either team. The Cycs finally found the back of the net halfway through the third when Collinson finished off a pass from Ben Rothwell. Gottfried lit the lamp just nineteen seconds into the third and Fletcher did it again with just 31 seconds left on the clock, assists went to Gottfried and Yungblut. The game ended with a score of 3 - 0. Jacob Nethercott had a great game and made some amazing saves to earn the shut-out.
Game four was back in Mitchell again. A desperate Meteors squad showed-up to play, and play they did! Our boys found themselves down by three going into the third. The coaching staff must have given the boys quite a motivational speech during the break between periods because the boys in red started the third with a goal from McPhee, assist to Gottfried, just seventeen seconds in. Just over a minute later, though, the Meteors scored to put us down by three again. Collinson finished a great pass from Buchanan shortly after to close the gap again, and two minutes later, Johnson took a pass from Bailey Matheson and found the goalie's five-hole to bring the team within one goal. The Cycs pulled the goalie and went on the attack with six skaters, but lost control of the puck at the blue line and gave-up an empty netter with thirty seconds left in the game to make the final score 5 - 3.
Game five was back in Listowel on Saturday morning and the hometown fans once again showed-up in full force to support the boys! The score was tied at zero after a fast-paced, back and forth first period. Early in the second, Matheson picked-up a Fletcher pass and put a shot high over the goalie's shoulder. Mitchell tied it up halfway through the second. The tie only lasted for forty-five seconds. Johnson buried what turned-out to be the game winner with assists going to Collinson and Yungblut. Mitchell fought back hard but they just couldn't get around the solid defense provided by Reece Reading, Curtis Jackson, Yungblut and Rothwell. The winger pairing of Ben Bowman and Zach Robinson provided a great offensive attack and created lots of scoring chances throughout the entire series.
Congratulations to all of the players and members of the coaching staff and good luck to you in the upcoming OMHA Semi-Final series against Kingsville.
