(Posted 8:30 a.m., Jan. 7)
Minor Peewee A Rangers capture Bell Capital Cup
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

(L to r) Gloucester Ranger assistant captains Cam Maunders, Deklyn Campbell and Cam Hogue accept the Bell Capital Cup after beating the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven 1-0 in the Minor Peewee AA final.. InAction Photography

The Gloucester Rangers Minor Peewee Green team ended 2017 with a bang last Friday by capturing the Minor Peewee AA championship at the Bell Capital Cup.

The Rangers downed the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven Minor Peewee team 1-0 in the final on a goal by Dylan Mitchell.

Caleb Weekes registered his fourth shutout of the tournament in picking up the win in net for the Rangers who finished the week with a near perfect 5-1-1 record.

Winning the Cup was the furthest thing from the players’ minds after the team suffered a loss and a tie on the opening day of the tournament.

After battling the Ottawa Sting Red squad to a 3-3 deadlock, the Rangers were blanked by the Stoney Creek Warriors 1-0. to finish the day near the bottom of the standings.

After a good night’s sleep, the team bounced back to post back-to-back wins over the Ottawa Sting Black team and the Utica Jr. Comets to earn a berth in the quarterfinals.

The Rangers downed the Sting 3-0 on a pair of goals by Spencer Fennell and a lone marker from Cameron Maunders. Less than five hours later, Maunders would score both goals in the Rangers’ 2-0 win over the Jr. Comets with Fennell picking up an assist on both markers.

Members of the Gloucester Rangers Minor Peewee A Green team pose with the Bell Capital Cup and the championship banner after downing the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven 1-0 in the tournament final last Friday.. InAction Photography

In the quarterfinals, the Green team had to face the Gloucester Rangers White squad which finished the round robin portion of the tournament with two wins and two losses. It was the third game of the day for both teams, but it was the Green team which still had enough bounce in their legs to squeak out a 3-2 win in overtime.

Maunders was once again the hero of the hour, scoring on a penalty shot to ice the victory and secure a berth in the semi-finals. He also scored the game tying goal late in the second period on a pass from Fennell.

The semi-final was a rematch of the Rangers tourn-ament opener against the Ottawa Sting Red squad, only this time instead of a tie they beat the Sting 2-0. Nathan Peskie got the Rangers on the board with a shorthanded effort just 24 seconds into the second period, and Samuel Sommerville scored an insurance marker in the final minute of the period on a pass from – you guessed it – Cameron Maunders.

It is the second tournament win of the season for the Rangers Green team which won the Capital Gold Rush tournament in late September. The team is also riding high in the Hockey East Ontario standings. They are one point up on the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven with a record of 15-5-3 record.

In other Bell Capital Cup action, the Cumberland Jr. Grads lost 1-0 to the Eastern Ontario Cobras in the Major Peewee AA final after compiling a 5-1-0 record including a 1-0 win over the Nepean Raiders in the semi-finals.

No fewer than 10 players scored goals for the Jr. Grads, with no one scoring more than three.

The only other east end team to make it through to a championship final was the Gloucester Rangers Minor Atom AA squad which went a perfect 5-0 in Minor Atom AAA division play before running into a very good Long Island Gulls team in the final.

The Rangers had scored 28 times in five games heading into the championship game, while Gulls had only given up five goals in their previous four games. Something had to give in the final, and in the end the Gulls’ defence, along with stellar goaltending from Chase Phillips, trumped the Rangers’ high-flying offence.

Long Island jumped out to an early 2-0 first period lead on goals by Matt Grimes and Nicholas Whitehead.

After a scoreless second period, the Rangers would cut the Gulls’ lead in half when Tristan Webb finally beat Phillips at the 5:23 mark of the third on a play that was set up by Dylan Turcotte and Jacob Cloutier.

Any hope of the Rangers forcing overtime was extinguished when the Gulls’ Marko Lisica scored with 2:31 left in the period to lock up the win. Clouthier ended the tournament with a team high eight goals and three assists, while his linemate Turcotte chalked up eight assists along with a goal.

Despite losing in the final, the young Ranger players were thrilled to have the chance to play on the same ice as the Ottawa Senators.

All seven of Sunday’s finals were played at the Canadian Tire Centre. Unfortunately, due to the extreme cold, a series of tournament finals pre-viously scheduled to take place on the outdoor rink on Parliament Hill had to be cancelled and rescheduled for the CTC, which meant several other finals had to be played at local rinks.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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