Leafs upset Sabres to capture ‘B’ crown

It pays to stick to the plan.
The Holmlund Leafs had a game plan going into the all-Fort Frances ‘B’ final of the local Bantam ‘A’ tournament and executed it to perfection en route to a 4-2 victory over the Canadian Tire Sabres on Sunday afternoon at the Ice for Kids Arena.
“It was an awful big win for our team,” Leafs’ head coach Greg Madill said after the game. “We were definitely the underdog.
“Basically all we did was stick to the plan and work hard.”
Madill said the plan involved staying out of the penalty box, remaining diligent on the forecheck and, most importantly, staying patient.
The Leafs’ bench boss was certain that if his team could accomplish those three things, they would put themselves in position to pull off the upset.
“We knew that if it didn’t go their [the Sabres’] way, they might get a little frustrated and take penalties,” he remarked.
Madill’s predictions proved accurate as the Sabres got into penalty trouble midway through the third period, giving the Leafs’ power play unit a chance to take control of the game—which it did, scoring two goals with the man-advantage in the final 10 minutes of regulation time.
“Our number-one power play [centre Jordan Sinclair, wingers Maxx Madill and Brett Bodnarchuk, along with defencemen Brandon Sinclair and Jeff Gustafson], as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the deadliest weapons in our league right now,” Madill enthused.
“We know that’s a good weapon for us,” he added. “We try and get the other team into penalty trouble and take advantage of that.”
Sabres’ head coach Milt Strachan admitted his team’s penalty woes were a contributing factor in the loss, and was quick to laud the opposition for making the most of their chances.
“We took a couple of penalties,” he noted. “It wasn’t anything chippy, it was just hard-working penalties and those happen.
“You have to work through them and it caught up to us today [Sunday].”
“We got beat by a hungrier team,” Strachan added. “They made their chances count and that’s the way it goes.”
After a scoreless first period, Jake Smith gave the Leafs a 1-0 lead midway through the period.
Smith collected the puck in the Sabres’ zone, turned, and quickly fired a shot that squeezed through Sabres’ goalie Jamison Shortreed’s pads.
The Leafs then appeared poised to add to their lead later in the period as the Sabres took consecutive penalties. But they could not beat Shortreed and it was the Sabres—buoyed by the successful penalty kills—who took advantage.
Just seconds after Canadian Tire’s second penalty had expired, Jeff Cridland broke into the Leafs’ zone and beat goalie Melissa Payne with a wrist shot to the short side, tying the game at 1-1 heading into the second intermission.
The Sabres took their first lead of the game early in the third period as Cridland spotted teammate Luke Henry standing alone in front of the Leafs’ goal and hit him with a pass.
Henry made no mistake—wiring a shot past Payne to put the Sabres out front.
The advantage would be short-lived, however, as Jordan Sinclair and Gustafson scored on similar plays—top-corner wrist shots off of the draw in the Sabres’ zone—to put the Leafs back on top.
Bodnarchuk then sealed the Leafs’ victory when he scored a power-play marker with a 1:08 left in regulation time.
The Leafs advanced to the ‘B’ final courtesy of a 2-1 record in round-robin play.
They had opened the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Kenora Houseboat Adventures (the eventual ‘A’ champs), but then rebounded nicely by winning their next two games—4-2 over the South End Stars (Thunder Bay) and 4-3 against Kenora Esso.
The Leafs then doubled the Dryden Hawks 4-2 in the ‘B’ semi-finals.
The Sabres, meanwhile, earned a trip to the ‘B’ final thanks to a similar 2-1 record in the round-robin.
They had opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over Kenora Esso, but lost 3-2 to Nor-West (Thunder Bay) in their second game.
The Sabres rebounded with a 5-0 thrashing of the Dryden Hawks, then dumped the Emo Predators 5-1 in the ‘B’ semi-finals.
In other tournament action, the Kennedy K9’s (Fort Frances) were eliminated in the ‘C’ quarter-final after losing 6-2 to the eventual ‘C’ champion South End Stars.
The K9’s opened the tournament with a 2-0 win over Zellers (Kenora) but then lost 4-2 to the Nor-West Stars (Thunder Bay) and 2-0 to the Dryden Hawks.