Lucas Punkari
Despite having the home crowd—and even some of their rival local teams—cheering them on, the Times Tigers fell 5-1 to the Neebing Devils (Thunder Bay) in the final of the FFMHA’s Novice tournament Sunday afternoon.
However, the runner-up showing continued an impressive run the Tigers have been on over the last few weeks.
They finished fourth in a tournament in Emo four weekends ago, and defeated Taggs in a 11-round shootout two weekends ago in Kenora.
“Everyone is playing as a team right now instead of trying to be an individual,” noted Tigers’ coach Myron Williams.
“They are all working together and they are also having fun out there, which is something that we continue to stress to the kids.
“If you don’t have fun out there, you are not going to want to come back and play,” he reasoned.
Earlier Sunday, the Tigers blanked the North End Flames (Thunder Bay) 4-0 in the ‘A’ semi-finals, with Darnell Kempf netting a hat trick and Nathan Smith notching the other goal.
Goalie Jaden Cooper was perfect against the Flames, and also stood on his head during the loss to the Devils in the final as he kept his team in the game.
“He didn’t have the help that he got in the semi-final game earlier this morning, but he kept us in the game all afternoon, which was a great help for us,” Williams said.
Forward Davis Wielinga had the lone goal for the Tigers in the final.
The Devils, competing in their lone out-of-town tournament of the season, were led offensively by Colby Petrunak and Logan Stacknick (two goals each), with Matthew Himanen netting the other one.
“This was our first time here in Fort Frances and we had a fantastic time,” Devils’ coach Todd Stacknick enthused.
“We had to battle a little bit to get into the championship game, but we had a great final against a great team from Fort Frances,” he noted.
“And in the end, our guys ended up playing as good a game as they could play.”
In other tournament action, the Atikokan Voyageurs edged the Thunder Bay KC Canucks 5-4 in the ‘B’ final while the ‘C’ final saw the hometown Armstrong Crushers cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Emo Little Loggers.
After being blown out by a combined score of 26-1 in their first two games, the Crushers rebounded in time for the playoffs with a 4-1 win over the Kenora On Deck Fries in the semi-finals Saturday before their ‘C’ crown triumph Sunday morning.
“Our first two round-robin game were against a couple of tough teams [the Voyageurs and the Devils] that outmatched us a bit, skills-wise,” admitted head coach Chris Dittaro.
“But the guys didn’t let that get them down,” he stressed.
“In our last round-robin game against Taggs, which is a team that gave us a bit of trouble this year here, we stayed right with them with some good intensity, and we were able to carry that right into the semi-finals and the final,” Dittaro added.
Corbin Riches netted a pair of goals for the Crushers in the ‘C’ final against the Little Loggers, with Darian Klem, Jace Dittaro, and Cameron Schofield adding singles.
Rounding out the Fort Frances teams were Taggs and the Fine Foods Fury, who both were eliminated in the ‘B’ semi-finals Saturday afternoon.
