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