The Sun County Panthers jumped out to an early lead and hung on to record a 6-4 victory over the Ottawa 67s Sunday morning to capture the bronze medals in the AAA peewee hockey portion of the 2018 Ontario Winter Games.
The bronze-medal win capped an impressive weekend for the team from Essex County as they won their two round-robin games, before losing to Hamilton in Saturday’s semi-final contest. For Ottawa, it was a disappointing end to a tournament that saw them start with a pair of well-earned wins, before suffering back-to-back losses.
In Sunday’s well-played contest at the Rama MASK, the Panthers were up 5-1 before the 67s began their comeback, closing the gap to 5-3 after two periods. But an early third-period tally by the Panthers seemed to take the wind from the Ottawa sails. The 67s scored a late power-play marker, but that was as close as they could get to the Panthers, whose netminder, Jaxon Drysdale, was stellar between the pipes in backstopping his team to the victory.
If you want to take in the gold-medal game between Hamilton and Mississauga, the puck drops at noon at the Rama MASK. You can also watch the game live on our website or on our Facebook page.
