Rangers take second

The Fort Frances ‘AA’ Rangers came away with second place after losing 3-0 in the Novice final Sunday afternoon at the Elks Tom Thumb Atom hockey tournament in Thunder Bay.
T.J. Pocock earned the nod as the best goalie in the tourney.
After a scoreless first period, the Norwest Stars erupted for a pair of second-period goals by Kyle Breukleman and Caley McDonald, then iced the victory over the Rangers when Ryan Hudec tallied in the third.
The Rangers had advanced to the final with a 3-1 win over Elks Canadian Tire in the semi-finals Sunday morning.
Mike Jourdain, assisted by Zachery McCool, put the Rangers ahead 1-0 with 4:08 left in the opening period, then Joe Basaraba (from Nathan Calder) made it a two-goal cushion exactly a minute later.
The Rangers netted the lone goal of the second period when Brandon Legarie (Brandon Thompson) hit the twine with 6:54 to go.
The Elks Canadian Tire netted the lone goal in the third but it was too little, too late.
The Fort Frances squad had opened action Friday morning with a 2-0 win over the Volunteer Pool Bearcats on goals by Evan McCabe (Z. McCool/Ryan Short-reed) in the first and Patrick Bobczynski in the second.
The third period was scoreless.
Then the Rangers eked out a 2-1 victory against the Neebing Hawks on Friday afternoon.
Once again, the Fort Frances crew jumped out an early lead, getting first-period goals from McCabe (Bobczynski/Z. McCool) and Bobczynski (unassisted).
After a scoreless second, the Hawks netted the lone goal of the third but could not get the equalizer.
On Saturday morning, the Rangers began play with a 2-0 whitewash over the Westfort Rangers on a pair of first-period goals by Blake Wepruk (with one assist credited to Bobczybski).
But they suffered their first loss later Saturday after falling 2-0 to the Norwest Stars (the last goal was an empty-netter with just one second to play)–the same team they would fall to in the final the next day.
The Rangers were coached by Don McCool and Shawn Jour-dain.