Despite sporting a 4-0 record in round-robin play, the local Tagg’s Source for Sports Bantam ‘AA’ team had to settle for fourth place in their nine-team tournament here last weekend.
“Our boys played excellent. We went through the round robin play 4-0,” enthused co-coach Shane Bliss. “We were the best team by far [in round robin].
“We played harder and skated better,” he added.
But it was a different story Sunday in the semi-finals, where Tagg’s lost a tough 5-4 battle to Nor-West in overtime to be bounced from further contention.
Nor-West quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by Billy Schewchuk, Grahame Cuff, and Nicholas Girardin.
But Tagg’s fought back. Andrew George (assisted by Ian Lockman) got the locals on the scoreboard in the second, then Terry Kellar, again from Lockman, made it 3-2.
After Jeff Heringer scored unassisted to widen the gap to 4-2, Kellar tallied a pair of third-period goals (both unassisted) after the goalie was pulled for the extra attacker to send the game to overtime.
But in the extra frame, Schewchuk netted his second goal of the contest to give the 5-4 victory to Nor-West, who went on to capture the tourney title later Sunday against the Thunder Bay Beavers.
“In semi-final action, we had a couple of mental lapses and they capitalized on it,” admitted Bliss.
Tagg’s, playing in Pool ‘A,’ had opened play Friday morning with a convincing 6-1 win over the North End Flames.
Tanner Kaemingh (assisted by Lockman and Tyler Barker) opened the scoring early in the first period, followed by a goal by Lockman (Barker) just over five minutes later.
Lockman (Kaemingh) tallied again early in the second frame to make it 3-0 before the Flames finally got on the scoreboard on a goal by Bobby Wrigley.
But it was all Tagg’s after that. After Barker (Kaemingh/Lockman) made it 4-1, Scott Bridgeman (Kellar/Greg Flewelling) added another one less than a minute later.
Kellar (Bridgeman) rounded out the scoring with about 10 minutes left in the third period.
Their second game Friday evening against the Thunder Bay Beavers was a little closer, with Tagg’s earning a 3-1 triumph.
Bridgeman (Kaemingh) had opened up the scoring in the first but the Beavers knotted things up at 1-1 later in the period on a goal by Adam Sergerie (unassisted).
Then with less than a minute left on the clock, Barker (Kaemingh/Lockman) netted the eventual game-winner.
After a scoreless second period, Barker (Jordan Wilson) added an insurance marker in the third to ice the victory.
The local Bantams continued their winning ways Saturday, first downing the Dryden Hornets 4-1, then wrapping up pool play with a 5-1 win over the Thunder Bay Maroons.
Against Dryden, Barker (unassisted), Lockman (Eric Mosbeck), and Cody Mosbeck (George/Jamie Davis) tallied to give Tagg’s a 3-0 lead after the first period.
The Hornets got one back in the second period on a goal by Ben Bartlett but that was as close as they could get. Eric Mosbeck (Kaemingh) rounded out the scoring with 1:32 to play to make the final score 4-1.
Then against the Maroons, Tagg’s exploded for five first-period goals by Barker (unassisted), Davis (unassisted), Wilson (Eric Mosbeck), Kyle McTavish (Barker), and George (Wilson) to put the game out of reach early on.
After a scoreless second period, Sebastien Matteau spoiled the shutout bid in the third but it was too little, too late.
Bliss said it was a good tournament, and that it wouldn’t have run as smoothly as it did without the help of the parents.
“We have to give the parents of the kids on the team a big hand–they did a good job keeping things running,” he noted.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
