ROCHESTER, NY — The Upper Ottawa Valley Aces Major Bantam “AA” hockey team had a successful weekend winning the Empire State Showdown tournament in spectacular fashion.
The event was in Rochester, New York and began Friday.
In Game One on Friday the team suffered a disappointing 2-0 loss to the New Jersey Flyers in a game that featured great goaltending from both teams. Later in the day, a team meeting and bonding event proved to be just what was needed to refocus as the team outscored their opponents 16-2 in the next three games.
In Game Two Saturday morning the Aces beat the New Jersey Colonials 6-2. Game Three against the Rochester Blades was a rout as the Aces scored six unanswered goals with Chase Ogilvie getting the shutout and the 6-0 victory.
The Aces ended the round robin portion of the tournament in third position and advanced to the semi-finals, but once again had to play the New Jersey Flyers who had previously shut them down 2-0. The boys were on a mission to correct their earlier loss and played with much passion on way to a 4-0 win. The team held New Jersey to just six shots on net with Ryan Donohue of Douglas getting the shutout.
The A Final game was a very spirited affair against the Vaughn Panthers which saw the Aces playing much of the game short-handed. After a quick start in which the Aces went up 2-0, the team was frustrated by the constant parade to the penalty box. Vaughn scored three power play goals to lead the Aces 3-2 midway in the third period. The Aces tied the game at three with just a few minutes remaining and sent it into overtime. Overtime featured 4 on 4 play for five minutes, but due to penalties both teams had only three players on the ice. With both teams trading scoring chances, a spectacular “Hail Mary” pass from defenseman Jordan Martin sprung winger Quinn Van Hoof on a breakaway to score the championship winning goal.
The hockey team is made of 14 year old players from the following regions:
Arnprior: Cory Kippen-defense, Chad Cherry-forward
Renfrew: Jared Burnette-forward, Nic Crozier-forward, Lawson Leclaire-forward
Douglas: Liam Enright-defense, Ryan Donohue-goalie, John Donohue-trainer
Cobden: Brendan Hennessey-forward, Nick Olmstead–defense, Mike Hennessey–coach, Chris Olmstead- coach
Pembroke: Keifer Levasseur-defense, Zach McMillan-forward, Aiden Strachan–forward, Rob Levasseur–coach, Lisa McMillan-manager
Petawawa: Ty Forbes-defense, Quinn Van Hoof-forward, Chase Ogilvie-goalie
Deep River: Jordan Martin-defense
Rolphton: Evan Leclerc-forward
