Staff
The local Taggs Source for Sports Bantam ‘AA’ team wrapped up the first half of their season prior to the Christmas break at a tournament in Hermantown, Mn. and brought home the bronze medal.
After opening with a 4-0 win over the Cloquet Lumberjacks, Taggs suffered a 5-1 defeat to the speedy Superior Spartans to be relegated to the bronze-medal game.
Taggs played the host Hawks in that game and pulled out an exciting 4-3 shootout victory.
Goal scorers in regulation time included a pair from Jordan Larson (from Colton Spicer and Tyler Fontana, respectively), and Jeff Davis (from Dylan Grinsell and Spicer).
The game remained tied through exciting 4-on-4 and then 3-on-3 overtime periods. Despite being outshot 48-23, goalie Scott Parsons kept Taggs alive with some big saves to extend the game to the shootout.
Spicer, the first Taggs’ shooter, was thwarted by the post. The first Hawks’ shooter, meanwhile, executed a Peter Forsberg-like deke—at the last moment trailing the puck to his backhand—only to be stopped by Parsons on a desperation save.
Larson next charged down on the Hawks’ goalie and fired a precise wrist shot for the opening goal of the shootout.
Parsons again stood tall on the next Hawks’ shooter, snagging a high wrist shot, glove side, to shut the door.
Fontana then had a chance to ice the victory for Taggs and made no mistake—sending the Fort Frances team home with the bronze.
In their opening 4-0 win over Cloquet, Larson had a pair of while Nick Kaun and Davis netted the others.
Nick Jourdain had Taggs’ lone goal in their 5-1 loss to Superior.
The tournament featured teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario.
Taggs also defeated the International Falls’ Bantams 5-3 in an exhibition tilt held Dec. 29, then doubled Warroad 6-3 this past Saturday.
Larson had four goals to pace Taggs’ attack against Warroad.
The team next is off to Sault Ste. Marie for the 28th-annual Steel City International tournament this coming weekend.
