U12 Ravens win Silver Stick in Woodstock

The Essex-Southpoint Ravens U12 hockey team hit the road this past weekend to compete in the Woodstock Silver Stick Hockey Tournament.

The Ravens team breezed through the round robin portion, defeating the Milton Winterhawks 6-1, the London Jr. Mustangs 8-0, and the Brantford 99ers 5-0.

On Sunday morning it was the St. Thomas Stars that Essex faced in the semis. Five minutes in, Austin Goudie found Derek Dunn in the circle who slid his pass to Nash Fuerth, who buried his chance to open the scoring.

With a few to go in the first, Goudie found the rebound from a Jonathan Recker shot from the point and slid a beautiful cross crease pass across to Dunn, who tapped it into the open cage.

In the middle frame, Youssef won the draw to O’Neil who passed across to Cook. Cook’s hard wrist shot from the point snuck through the five-hole to go up by three.

The Stars scored on a power play but immediately after, on the ensuing face off, Austin Goudie grabbed the puck , weaved his way in past the D and buried his shot low glove.

The U12 Ravens defeated the Welland Tigers to win the Woodstock Silver Stick Tournament this past weekend. Team members are, front left to right: Trent Chevalier, Kevin Ondic, Maxim Pyne. Middle row: Brayden Foster, Isaiah Georges, Ben Liebrock, AJ Youssef, Lucas O’Neil, Owen Derksen, Derek Dunn, Jonathan Recker, Coach Ryan Derksen. Back row: Austin Goudie, head coach Tony Youssef, Joseph ‘JoJo’ McLeod, Kayden Cook, Nash Fuerth, Nathan Mariuz, Tyler Thomas, trainer Kevin Cook.

Submitted photo

A Ravens giveaway allowed the Stars to sneak a little closer by scoring, but with 3:51 remaining and the Stars goalie pulled for a six-on-four advantage, Nash Feurth intercepted a pass and found the open net to seal the 5-2 win.

Kevin Ondic made some timely saves to backstop his team to the win.

The Welland Tigers were the only team left standing in the Ravens’ way on the road to the championship.

In a back and forth first period, nothing was decided as the score remained at zero.

With three to go in the second, on an Essex giveaway, the Tigers were able to break the ice and take the lead. With their team facing some adversity for the first time, the Ravens came out in the final frame a determined bunch. Two minutes in Lucas O’Neil dug the puck out of the corner to Derek Dunn who found Nash Feurth in the slot. He wired his shot top shelf to get back even.

Midway through the final frame, Kayden Cook chipped the puck to Dunn at centre who was at full speed and he dipsy doodled through the defense, finishing by rifling his shot low glove to take the lead.

With 4:43 remaining, Youssef tapped the puck to Fuerth, who promptly skated in and snapped his shot over the glove to increase the lead.

Finally, with 13 seconds to go, O’Neil found a loose puck and fired it down the length of the ice into an empty net to seal the hard fought 4-1 victory.

Trent Chevalier made some stellar saves to seal the deal for the Ravens as they were crowned Silver Stick Champions.

This tournament win qualified the team to participate in the International Silver Stick Finals tournament in Newmarket January 6-9.