Emo Esso runners-up at tourney

Emo Esso came up one goal short over the weekend.
The squad lost 5-4 in overtime to the Elks Play-It-Again Sports (Thunder Bay) in the ‘A’ final of a 12-team PeeWee ‘A’ tournament Sunday afternoon at the Ice for Kids Arena here.
Despite suffering a tough defeat in the final, Emo Esso coach Rick Bourre was thrilled with the result and the effort his players displayed throughout the three-day tournament.
“We had an excellent weekend,” he beamed. “We couldn’t ask much more from our kids. Our kids gave 150 percent all the time.
“We had excellent goaltending and excellent forward play,” he added. “These kids should be proud of themselves.”
Bourre’s positive sentiments were echoed by Elks head coach John Falvo, who applauded both teams for a hard-fought game.
“It was a good game,” he remarked.
Falvo cited his team’s overall speed as the key factor in the victory.
“We’ve got a smaller team so having them skate hard and go wide on these guys, and skate as hard as they could, is what we preached all weekend,” he noted.
Dylan Curtis opened the scoring 4:56 into the first period while on the penalty kill. The Emo forward forced a turnover deep in the Thunder Bay zone, cut hard to the net, and fired a shot just inside the far post to give his team the 1-0 lead.
The early advantage did not last long, however, as the Elks responded with a goal of their own before the same power-play ended.
Thunder Bay gained the zone following an Emo turnover and forward Brock Kasstan beat Emo goalie Derek Lauzon with a low shot.
Kyle Parkin and Andrew Tienhaara drew the assists.
The Elks then grabbed the lead a minute-and-a-half later when Parkin backhanded a shot from the face-off circle that eluded Lauzon.
Dylan Hrychuk and Jacie Indian earned the assists.
Thunder Bay extended their lead to 3-1 with 2:13 to go in the opening period on a spectacular individual effort from Kasstan.
He received a pass along the boards in the Emo zone, cut hard to the net, and made two moves before sliding a shot along the ice past Lauzon.
John Markus and Dustin Earl assisted.
But Emo cut the lead to 3-2 in the waning seconds of the period after a deft pass from Lindsay Bourre sent Devin Meyers in alone on a breakaway.
Meyers fired a hard shot from the top of the left face-off circle that Elks goalie Charlie Tough got a piece of but was unable to keep from dribbling over the goal-line.
The back-and-forth battle continued in the second as Emo tied the score just over four minutes into the period.
Lucas Koomans’ shot from the point was stopped, but Greg Maki pounced on the rebound and shovelled it past a sprawling Tough for the equalizer.
Curtis earned his second point of the game with the second assist.
The Elks regained the lead with less than a minute to go in the second period when Hrychuk forced a turnover deep in Emo’s zone. He skated into the slot from the right-wing boards and wired a shot past Lauzon for the unassisted tally.
Trailing by a goal, Emo came out hard to start the third. And several minutes of sustained pressure finally paid off when Nick Hay pounced on a rebound and fired it past a sprawling Tough to tie the game at 4-4.
Jonathan Clink and Ian Friesen collected the assists.
With the game tied once more, both teams then took turns controlling play for prolonged stretches. And both goalies shone between the pipes as they each turned aside several quality scoring chances.
Neither team was able to break the deadlock during regulation time, which forced a five-minute three-on-three overtime.
But the extra period was a short one as the Elks scored just eight seconds in to end the game.
Tanner Shubaly won the opening face-off and passed the puck to Hrychuk. The speedy winger carried the puck into the Emo zone, beat the defender, and then wired a shot over Lauzon’s shoulder for the 5-4 victory.
Hrychuk and Emo’s Curtis were honoured as the MVPs after the game.
Emo Esso had advanced to the final thanks to their 5-1 win over the Westfort Maroons (Thunder Bay) in the semi-finals earlier Sunday. The Elks earned the other berth with a narrow 4-3 win over the Current River Comets (Thunder Bay).
The Oddfellows blanked fellow Fort Frances team Green’s 8-0 to win the ‘B’ division title Sunday while the Fort Frances Lions doubled the Kenora Red Lion 4-2 to capture the ‘C’ crown.