Jamie Mountain
If there were any doubts that the Causeway Cougars were the best team at the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association’s annual Atom ‘A’ tournament over the weekend, those were quashed Sunday.
Evan Wright scored twice to lead the Cougars to a 3-1 victory over the Fort Frances Rainy Lake Attack in the gold-medal final.
It capped a perfect weekend for Causeway, which won all six of its games.
Nikko Ruppenstein opened the scoring with 7:20 left in the first period, swooping in on a breakaway and firing a blistering wrist shot top-shelf.
Wright made it 2-0 when he beat Attack goalie Ashtyn Thomson five-hole with a deft touch with 4:20 to go in the second.
Wright then netted his second of the game with a seeing-eye backhander from just beyond the left face-off dot that managed to find its way over Thomson’s glove to give the Cougars a 3-0 cushion with 7:32 remaining in the third.
The Attack pulled Thomson for an extra attacker in the late stages and were rewarded when Marlee Bliss banged one past Cougars’ goalie Ziigwan Smith to trim it to 3-1 with 23.5 seconds left.
But despite getting a few more chances, they couldn’t complete the comeback and settled for a hard-earned silver medal.
The Cougars booked their ticket to the final earlier Sunday with a 3-1 win over International Falls Gold in the semi-finals.
After a scoreless first period, Ruppenstein opened the scoring with 3:35 left in the second period before Ella Evans made it 2-0 with just under a minute left.
International Falls notched its lone goal 2:09 into the third off the stick of Cale Jensen to trim it to 2-1.
But Wright capped the scoring with 9:56 remaining to seal the win.
Causeway opened the tournament Friday with a 7-2 win over the Kenora Golden Knights, then followed that up by doubling International Falls Gold 6-3.
The Cougars then skated to a 4-0 shutout over the Dryden Red Dragons on Saturday before capping the day with a 4-1 defeat of the Kenora Green Gators.
That put them into the semi-finals as the top seed with a perfect 4-0 record.
The Attack, meanwhile, advanced to the final after a 3-0 shutout over International Falls Purple in the semi-finals earlier Sunday.
Lara Allan and Bliss scored first-period markers to stake Rainy Lake to a lead they would not relinquish.
Noah Avis capped the scoring with a third-period marker while Thomson earned the shutout.
Rainy Lake opened play Friday with a 4-2 triumph over the Emo Express, then trounced the Dryden Red Dragons 6-1.
On Saturday, they topped the Kenora Golden Knights 3-1 before ending preliminary play with a 7-2 thumping of the Kenora Red Dragons to also finish with a 4-0 record and earn the second seed in the tournament.
The FFMHA next will host its annual Atom ‘AA’ tournament this Friday through Sunday (Jan. 26-28).
