The Service Master
Restore Atom AE Petes came away CHAMPIONS after going 6-0 at this weekend’s Kitchener Oktoberfest
tournament.
The final game saw the Petes matched up against hometown favorite Kitchener Rangers Blue. The first period contained a lot of back and forth hockey with both goaltenders appearing unflappable. It looked like the Petes might break the goose egg in the closing seconds of the first when the final shot of the period rang off the cross bar, but it wasn’t until 50 seconds into the 2nd period when Riley Hagerman would put the Petes on the board.
The Rangers still had plenty of life and managed to tie the game up less than 4 minutes later, sending the hometown crowd into a frenzy. On this day the Petes weren’t going to allow the goal to build momentum for the Rangers and took the air out of the crowd when Joe Donoghue netted the eventual game winner 6 seconds later.
The Petes strong defensive zone play, combined with exceptional goaltending from Bradley Montgomery were enough to hold the Rangers off until Jayden Howson sealed the game with an empty net goal to give the Petes a 3-1 victory.
Montgomery was chosen by the tournament committee as the MVP of the final game and awarded a new pair of goalie skates, while the rest of the team didn't go home empty handed and received brand new composite sticks courtesy of Bauer hockey.
Assists during the final went to Josh Watson, Donoghue and Montgomery.
Getting to the final was no easy task as the Petes had to go through some of the toughest teams they had played all year.
They opened the tournament playing against the Burlington Bulldogs Red, coming away with a 5-1 victory on goals from Caeden Kent (2), Cole Scanlan, Hagerman and Donoghue, with assists from Adam Revak, James Chandra, Jack Pacey, Kent, Donoghue and Watson.
The Petes improved to 2-0 on Friday night when they beat the Vaughan Rangers 4-0. Goals in the game came from Sam Dickey (2), Tobey Skopelianos and Kent, with assists from Archer Stalteri (2), Skopelianos (2), and Dickey. Montgomery was strong between the pipes and earned the shutout, also taking home some hardware in the form of the tournament shutout award.
Brody Carrick wasn’t going to miss out on the shutout award either and guided the Petes to their 3rd victory of the tournament when they blanked the Waterloo Wolves 5-0 on Waterloo’s home ice Saturday afternoon. Aside from the great goaltending, this game was the Skopelianos show as he put on a top notch performance for the Petes. Skopelianos scored 4 of the Petes goals and assisted on the fifth when he made a great cross crease pass to Dickey. Other assists during the game went to Cole Stevens, Stalteri and Dickey.
The Petes rounded out their pool play with a 4-1 win over the North London Nationals on Saturday night, which gave them the best goals for differential and seeded them in first heading to the playoff round. Goals in this game came from Dickey (2), Skopelianos and Kent, with the assists coming from Skopelianos, Howson, Watson and Pacey.
The road to the finals concluded in a semi-final matchup with the Orangeville Flyers. The Petes opened the scoring four minutes into the game on a goal by Kent and built their lead in the opening minute of the second frame when Dickey banged home a pass from Skopelianos.
The Flyers weren’t content to let the Petes walk through to the finals and a mid-period penalty was the catalyst they needed to get their comeback on track. The flyers used the man advantage to open their scoring and then scored the tying goal 13 seconds later as the Petes were regrouping.
The game remained tied until 2 minutes remaining when Stalteri found the back of the net after a tick tac toe passing play from Dickey and Skopelianos. The Petes would hold on through a last minute charge from the Flyers and head to the finals after the 3-2 victory.
The team would like to thank all of our parents, coaches and sponsors for a great weekend, including our sponsor of the week – Peterborough This Week.