D10 champion Bears into CWOSSA AAA semifinals
FERGUS – The District 10 champion Orangeville Bears split their pair of games on the opening day of the two-day CWOSSA high school boys’ AAA hockey tournament Monday at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex.
The Bears dropped their opener 3-2 to the Grand River Renegades when they yielded a power-play goal with 8.7 seconds to go in the third period. They rebounded to edge the Owen Sound DSS Wolves 2-1 in their second game.
Ty Ensom and Kurtis Varkel scored for Orangeville in the loss to Grand River. Single assists were awarded to Varkel, Andrew Wilson and Ethan Josephson.
Trey Weinstein, Eidan McCartney and Jacob Reid Brandt had a goal apiece for Grand River while Colin Arsenault, Evan Wallace and Cole Hunsberger each had an assist.
Tristan Brindley scored both Orangeville goals 3:26 apart midway through the second period in the win over Owen Sound DSS. Assists went to Josephson and Scott Clapham.
Ty Shouldice netted an unassisted goal with 2:22 to go in the third period for the Wolves.
“It’s not one of the best teams that I’ve had,” Orangeville coach Justin Davis said. “We’ve been lucky that most of the times we’ve had one of the best players in the league so it’s been more of a team effort this year. We lost three of our first four and then just kind of got on a roll. Even today, I get mad and think we should have won by more, but they did what they had to do. They seem to play their best hockey when their backs are against the wall.”
Grand River blanked Owen Sound DSS 3-0 in the pool’s other game.
Those results mean Grand River and Orangeville advance to Tuesday morning’s tournament semifinals.
In the other pool, the Monsignor Doyle Mustangs of Cambridge defeated the Elmira Lancers 3-0 and the Brantford CI Mustangs 7-4 and Elmira defeated Brantford CI 5-0.
Monsignor Doyle and Elmira move on to the semifinals.
Orangeville is to play Monsignor Doyle at 9:30 a.m. on Pad B while Elmira and Grand River are to play at 10 a.m. on Pad A.
The semifinal winners are to meet in the tournament final Tuesday at 2 p.m. on Pad A.
Winner gains a berth in the OFSAA provincial AAA tournament at Windsor March 21 to 23.
- Guelph Sports Journal