Shauna-Leigh Carlson
The Fort Frances Atom ‘AA’ Canadians ended their tournament season just like they had started it—by winning.
After capturing the season-opening Dryden Paper Kings ‘AA’ tournament back on Nov. 11-13, the Canadians wrapped up their campaign at the Neebing ‘AA’ hockey tournament March 16-18 at the Thunder Bay Tournament Center.
The Canadians started the tournament with a series of games on the Friday afternoon.
In their opener against the host Neebing Hawks, Ethan Carlson-Jourdain opened the scoring in the second period.
The Canadians then sat back a bit on their heels and found themselves trailing 2-1 midway through the third.
But with just under five minutes to go, Cooper Witherspoon found the back of the net to knot the score at 2-2.
The game ended tied and was the lone blemish for the Canadians, who went on to beat the Westfort Rangers 5-1, the PW Fury 4-3, and the Thunder Bay Elks 5-2.
The championship game was a rematch between the Canadians and Hawks on Sunday afternoon.
The Canadians opened up the scoring on a beautiful one-timer by Kaleb Bruyere, set up by Carlson-Jourdain, at 8:26 of the first period.
The Hawks replied with a short-handed goal at 6:15 of the first, then scored another with 1:40 left in the period to go up 2-1.
Spencer Murphy had started the game in net for the Canadians. But an injury that been acting up all weekend forced him to take himself out of the game.
Aidan Tom came on in relief of Murphy and put the team’s hopes of making a comeback on his shoulders with some stellar saves.
Nick Hahkala, on a great individual effort, scored a power-play goal at 6:09 of the second period.
The Canadians had found themselves in penalty trouble all game, logging 16 minutes in penalties out of a 32 total-minute game, but head coach Blake Bodnar and assistans Brent Perreault, Sheldon Kelly, and Todd Hahkala kept the team’s spirits up and belief they could win.
There was no scoring in the third period, which meant the game would go to a sudden-death overtime to determine the tourney champs.
The Canadians entered the overtime period having to kill a penalty but survived the Hawks’ frantic efforts to get the puck past Tom.
The Canadians successfully killed off the penalty, and got stronger and stronger as the overtime progressed.
Then with 6:25 left in the extra session, Carlson-Jourdain chipped the puck up the ice to Witherspoon, who went in on a breakaway.
Witherspoon quickly pulled the puck to his backhand and went top shelf over the Hawks’ sprawling goalie.
The roar of the Canadians’ parents filled the rink as the team poured off the bench and piled on top of Witherspoon.
