Taggs top ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ tourney

In their final tournament of the season, the local Taggs Bantam ‘AA’ boys’ hockey team came away victorious—claiming top honours in their division at the Nor’west Stars of Tomorrow tournament in Thunder Bay over the weekend.
The Fort Frances team breezed through the tournament—going undefeated in their six games.
“We cruised through the round-robin,” said head coach Greg Madill. “We went 4-0.”
Taggs opened the round-robin portion with a 4-3 victory over the Neebing Hawks. A 2-1 win over the Wesfort Maroons followed, but the team was just getting warmed up.
Taking on the South End Rangers in their third game, Taggs put an “exclamation point” on their 7-1 win against the Thunder Bay squad.
“On this team we went about our business quietly, without a lot of fanfare,” noted Madill. “But we competed with honour and integrity.
“This is a team that really supported each other and backed each other up.”
Taggs completed round-robin play with a 5-1 win over the Thunder Bay Beavers.
Going undefeated, while outscoring their round-robin opponents by an 18-6 margin, it may be hard to believe that Taggs actually was concerned about their offensive production coming into the tournament.
“We were a little worried that we weren’t scoring enough,” admitted Madill. “But we played well and scored.”
Of course, having some outstanding goalies doesn’t hurt, either. Taggs split their netminding duties between Jamieson Shortreed and Devon Stromness, who both came up big during the tournament.
Madill praised his goalies, going so far as to base much of the team’s play on their ability.
“Our goaltending was excellent,” he enthused. “We tried to play starting at the back, and we’re a hard team to score on.”
With a perfect record on the line, Taggs faced the Red Lake Rockets in the semi-finals—earning a 2-0 shutout that propelled them into the championship final versus the Superior Spartans of Superior, Wis.
But even with his team’s success, Madill said they took it all in stride. “We didn’t worry about winning,” he noted. “We worried about doing things right and everything came together.
“Going into Thunder Bay is a tall order,” he added. “And I think we had the toughest road to the championship game. I’m just so proud of them.”
The two teams each put a pair of goals on the board in the final, but that was all they could muster during three periods.
Then when overtime decided nothing, the Spartans and Taggs engaged in a shootout to determine a winner.
Taggs’ Donovan Cousineau took to the ice and scored the only goal of the shootout, giving Shortreed all the room he would need to earn the win in goal.
Shortreed turned away all three shots he faced in the shootout.
With a perfect record and a championship title under his belt, Madill stressed the tournament was full of talented squads. “Every team was a good team,” he said. “They were all well-coached and there was a high level of play.”
But he saved the highest praise for his own boys.
“I think we proved that we’re one of the best teams in Northwest Ontario,” Madill said.