Staff
Two W’s led to an exciting ‘W’ for the Fort Frances Fine Foods Fury.
Willem Kirk-Bertens and William Yerxa scored in the shootout to give the Fury a 2-1 win Sunday over the Fort Frances Armstrong Crushers in the ‘C’ final of the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association’s Novice tournament.
Layton Hanson put the Crushers up 1-0 in the second period before Kirk-Bertens tied it with less than nine minutes left in the third.
Fury goalie Koda Wilson turned away both Noah Morrisseau and Landen Hanson in the shootout while Crushers’ netminder Keaton Wilson was beaten on both attempts by the Fury.
Fine Foods opened play with a 6-3 loss to the Fort Frances DC Giants.
Anthony Yerxa had a pair of goals for the Giants, with Marlee Bliss, Connor Byzewski, Addison Chown, and Tarran Enge adding singles.
William Yerxa, Logan McCart, and Kirk-Bertens replied for the Fury, who then tied the Westfort Junior Thunderwolves 1-1 on Kirk-Bertens’ goal.
The Fury really got rolling in their third game–beating the Thunder Bay Elks Penguins 7-3.
Kirk-Bertens racked up four goals in that one while Jacobe Kempf (two) and William Yerxa got the other goals.
The Neebing Hawks were less than kind, though, dumping the Fury 9-1 as Racin Witherspoon notched his squad’s lone tally.
As for the Crushers, they looked strong early with a 4-0 shutout win over the Emo Express.
Parker Sisco, Mark Hyatt, Max Hanson, and Layton Hanson had a goal apiece for Armstrong while Cooper earned the shutout.
The eventual champion Neebing Golden Hawks posted a 7-1 win over the Crushers, who got its lone goal from Landen Hanson.
Then it was the Crushers’ turn to inflict serious damage as they blanked the Current River Comets 8-0.
Layton Hanson led the way with a hat trick while Landen Hanson and Noah Morrisseau added two markers each.
Matthew Egan got the other goal.
The Westfort Maroons ended the Crushers’ preliminary round on a down note, topping Armstrong 4-1 as Sisco scored with just two seconds left in the game to spoil the shutout bid.
Other games for the DC Giants included a 4-2 loss to the Elks Penguins.
Tarran Enge had a goal and also assisted on Collin Howarth’s tally for the Giants, who also dropped an 8-1 decision to the Hawks.
Anthony Yerxa got the sole goal for DC, which ended pool play with a 5-0 defeat against the Thunderwolves.
Emo closed the tournament with an 0-4 record, including a spirited 6-1 loss to the Hawks in their final game.
The Express also lost 8-1 to Current River and 7-0 to the Maroons.
Malcolm Martin netted both Emo goals during the tournament.
