Lakeside Peewees won 1-0 overtime final in Buffalo

By C. Scott Holland

During the Christmas holidays in 1991, Leamington’s Lakeside Jersey Dairy PeeWees traveled to Buffalo to play in the 17th Annual Hornets Festival of Hockey. They were entered in the round-robin Minor PeeWee A competition.

In the opening contest, the Jersey Dairy squad handled Buffalo as Jeff Robinson notched a hattrick to give the local boys a 5-1 win.

However, the next two contests would provide them with tougher opponents.

They faced a Toronto team and built a 2-0 lead on goals by Aaron McMath and Darby Cerovski. The Toronto squad fought back to gain a 2-2 draw.

In their next contest, they battled hard against Brampton. The game started at 7 am and Leamington dominated early and were physical but the combatants went through two scoreless periods before Leamington’s Jeff Robinson notched the only goal and Lakeside won it 1-0 thus earning a position in the finals with their points total.

The 1991-92 Lakeside Jersey Dairy PeeWees. Standing, left to right are coach Ewald Dobetsberger, Jeff Simpson, Nick Shilson, trainer Rick Sudds, Mike Mereszak, Greg Biekx, GM Gary Mereszak, Aaron McMath, Chris Garroway, and Patrick Sudds. Kneeling in the front are Jesse Garant, Steven Reid, Jeff Robinson, Eric Hewett, Darby Cerovski, and Steven Bradley.

Photo courtesy fo the C. Scott Holland Collection

They faced Toronto in the final and it would be a classic game. Lakeside starter Jesse Garant eliminated any and all Toronto chances until the midway point of the contest, when Steven Bradley took over the netminding duties. Bradley faced a tense breakaway threat right off, but thwarted the Toronto attempt.

Neither side scored during regulation time, leaving the game in a rare 0-0 tie and thus headed to a five-minute overtime period. But like the previous three frames, both teams could not find the back of the net and a second overtime stanza was set.

With 50 seconds remaining in the second OT period, Mike Mereszak and Greg Biekx hooked passes to connect with Jeff Robinson.

As Robinson neared the Toronto net, he fell to the ice but chipped a shot that sailed under the crossbar to seal the championship victory.