Staff
The Fort Frances Midget ‘A’ Canadians capped off the weekend in style as they nabbed a 3-1 win over the Westfort Rangers (Thunder Bay) in the championship final of their annual home tournament on Sunday at the Ice For Kids Arena.
After finishing preliminary play with a 2-1 record and winning their semifinal game on Saturday afternoon, the Canadians wasted little time in getting going in Sunday’s final.
Cole Kreger opened the scoring for Fort Frances just under two minutes into the first period as he potted the rebound of Gabe Hyatt’s initial attempt past Rangers’ goalie Landen Ferris.
But the visitors struck right back less than a minute later when Quintan Wapoose finished off some good pressure down low and snapped a shot past Canadians’ goalie Ethan Skirten.
Hyatt then helped the Canadians regain the lead at 3:27 as he fired a shot from the point that beat a screened Ferris in the Thunder Bay net.
Brandon Croswell capped the scoring 4:14 into the second as he buried the loose puck shortly after a breakaway attempt was stopped.
The Rangers had a lengthy 5-on-3 power play carry over into the third period, but they were unable to close the gap en route to settling for silver.
The Canadians opened play on Friday afternoon with a 3-1 win over the Current River Comets.
Davis Wielinga, Tristan Yerxa, and Kreger provided the goals for Fort Frances.
Adam George then scored four times to pace the Canadians to a narrow 5-4 win over the West End Bruins (Thunder Bay) that evening.
Matthew Begin tallied the other marker in that one.
Then on Saturday morning, the Canadians suffered their lone loss of the weekend by being routed 7-0 by the Rangers in their first meeting.
But the squad rebounded with a 2-1 win over the Bruins in the semifinals that afternoon to earn their berth into Sunday’s championship rematch against the Rangers.
Yerxa and George both lit the lamp for the Canadians in that one.
The next home tournament for the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association will be its annual three-day Bantam ‘A’ one on Jan. 3-5 at the Memorial Sports Centre.
