Chris Clegg
South Peace News
The High Prairie Red Wings picked the worst possible time to go sour.
After dominating the West Division of the Greater Metro Hockey League for three seasons with three league titles in hand, the Red Wings found the opposition a little too tough at the national tournament at Temiscaming, P.Q. March 30 to April 1.
The Red Wings lost 9-3 to the host Temascaming Titans March 30, 6-3 to the North York Renegades March 31, and 11-2 to the Bradford Rattlers April 1. As a result, the Red Wings were the only team to not win a game in the four-team round-robin tournament and were outscored 26-8. Shots on goal were not overly in favour of their opponents, however, as the Red Wings were outshot 109-91 in the three losses.
In the opener against the Titans, the Red Wings trailed 3-2 after one period and 6-2 after two. Christopher Fanfan led the Titans with two goals as did Maxime Lavoie, who scored both of his goals in the third period. Nathan Hardy, Jacob Tessier- Gagnon, Michael Stegman, Gadel Khismatullin and Nico Gregoire added the other goals.
Jaeger Lapointe and Kaden Cardinal scored first period goals for the Red Wings while Hudson Chalifoux added a short-handed goal in the third.
The Titans outshot the Red Wings 37-27 and took only three minor penalties compared to the Red Wings’ nine, including all four in the third period. The Titans clicked on one of eight power play chances while the Red Wings were one-for-three.
Brad Roncin took the loss in net giving up all nine goals in 52 minutes. Dawson Holitzki played perfect goal the other eight minutes.
The Red Wings lost 6-3 to the Renegades the next day. After a scoreless first period, the Renegades tool a 3-0 lead in the second period on goals by Christopher Rende, Vadim Karpenko and Daniel Johnson.
Dayton Shantz replied before the end of the period to make it 3-1.
Kaden Desjarlais closed the gap to 3-2 at the 3:37 mark of the third period. But less than two minutes, later, the Renegades gained control on goals from Joseph Lionti and Rende to make it 5-1.
Braydan Auger scored for the Red Wings and Kyler Ephraim for the Renegades in the last 10 minutes to end the scoring.
The Red Wings outshot the Titans 28-26 and were two-for-eight on the power play while the Renegades were blanked on five chances. The Renegades also took 38 minutes in penalties compared to the Red Wings’ 32.
Roncin again took the loss in goal giving up all six goals.
The Red Wings played their final game having already been eliminated and they were blown out 11-2 by the Rattlers, who led 3-0 after one period and 7-0 after two. The Rattlers received seven goals from seven different players including Swen Meusy, Nazar Atta El-Manan, Jacob Rhodin, Adam Witkowski, Hunter Godmere, Daniel Suda and Arvid Malm.
In the third period, Godmere and El-Manan each scored their second goals while Stepan Levitskiy and Lukas Roy added the others.
Ferguson and Lapointe replied for the Red Wings, who played a penalty-free game. The Rattlers took two first period minor penalties. Neither team scored a power play goal but Rhodin did score short-handed for the Rattlers. Roncin again took the loss in net.
The Rattlers defeated North York 7-4 in the final April 2 to win the title.