Staff
The local Boston Pizza Royals can play good hosts.
The PeeWee ‘AA’ hockey team hosted the first-annual Boston Pizza “Fire on Ice” tournament over the weekend in hopes of capturing the championship for the hometown fans but had to settle for a fourth-place finish.
In their first game Friday, the Royals suffered a narrow 4-3 loss to the eventual champs, the Dryden Paperkings.
Defenceman Jarred Taylor was a strong physical force for the Royals to help shut down Dryden’s top line while right-winger Claire Sandelovich was the key forward in setting up two of the Royals’ goals.
Trailing 3-2 with less than a minute left of the second period, Royals’ center Javis Lockhart sniped one over the shoulder of the Dryden goalie to knot the score.
But the Paperkings netted a goal early in the third period to seal the victory.
In yet another close finish, the Royals emerged victorious in their second game against the Selkirk Fishermen.
Right-winger Jeremy Shypit confused the Selkirk goalie when he made an unexpected pass to centre Jared Bethune to net the opening goal early in the first period.
Defenceman Carter Brown played strong and physical, killing off more than eight penalty minutes, while goalie Brandon Bodnar had a solid performance between the pipes in helping the Royals earn a 2-1 win.
Goalie Dylan Ossachuk then recorded a 7-0 shutout against the KC Sabres in Game 3.
Defenceman Zander Chalupsky was a dominant force in keeping the puck moving and setting up right-winger Tyler VanUden for two goals.
Meanwhile, centre Finn Chalupsky was the key forward, notching a goal and two assists.
The Royals ended round-robin play with a 2-1 record, which left them in second place in Pool ‘A.’ That set up a playoff showdown with the first-place team from Pool ‘B,’ the Springfield Icehawks, for a berth in Sunday’s championship game.
Springfield got off to an early start against the Royals, scoring two goals in the first period.
But defencemen Max Williams and Spencer Shortreed then shut down the Icehawks’ big guns, keeping them off the scoreboard in the second period.
Left-wingers David Pryde, Graeme Kitt, and Kyle Knapp also were a strong physical force in this game keeping the Icehawks pinned into the boards and digging the puck out for their linemates.
Third-period action started off with the Royals netting a goal early and the Icehawks coming back with another less than a minute later.
Then with 2:33 to go, the Royals scored another goal. Unfortunately, the Icehawks were able to get past the extra attacker to put the puck in the empty net to seal the 4-2 win.
With the Icehawks advancing to the championship, the Royals were left to face Kenora in the bronze-medal game. But the Royals fell 4-1 to the Thistles for a fourth-place finish.
The Dryden Paperkings, meanwhile, went on to beat the Springfield Icehawks 5-2 to capture the tourney title.
During the tournament’s opening ceremonies early Friday afternoon, the Royals thanked the Knights of Columbus for 73 years of sponsorship by presenting the former sponsor with a jersey signed by all the players.
The Royals also recognized their new sponsor, Boston Pizza.
“Thank you, KC’s, it’s been a wonderful relationship and we’re all sad to see it end,” Royals’ coach Mike Allison said during the ceremony.
“On the other hand, we’re very happy. . . . We’ve had the opportunity to have somebody else step up and become our sponsorship,” he noted.
