The Team Micks Real Estate U-18 Orillia Terriers won the international Silver Stick last night.
Back in November, the Terriers beat the second-ranked team in the country, the Elmira Sugar Kings, in the Silver Stick qualifying tournament in Midland. The International Silver Stick tournament was originally scheduled for January in Sarnia, but because of COVID, it was cancelled. The tournament was then rescheduled for the March break in Newmarket.
“That only happened three weeks ago,” explained Terriers head coach Wes Winkel of the rescheduling. “The problem is we had three good players who were all scheduled to go away for March break and their trips were already planned.”
The Terriers brought up a couple of players from the house league level to fill in for the tournament. Luckily, the other teams in the tournament were facing the same dilemma.
On Saturday, the Terriers downed the best team in the province, the Hespeler Shamrocks. The Terriers finished the round-robin with a record of 3-1. In the finals, the Terriers were once again victorious against the Shamrocks - this time by a score of 3-2.
The Silver Stick is one of the most prestigious championships in all minor hockey because of the marathon of games and tournaments it takes to win it.
“Basically, if you lose once at the wrong time, you are out,” Winkel said. “Ironically, the only time we lost was against the team who finished last in the tournament.”
The Terriers did not have a player who scored more than six goals the whole tournament. This is not a team of superstars, but rather a team that presents a balanced attack, said the proud coach.
“We also had a lot of depth,” Winkel said. “Being able to bring boys up from the year below and the kids from house league really helped.”
The Terriers also received phenomenal goaltending. Sam Neely and Tucker Northcott combined to record three shutouts Neely got the win in the championship game, steering away 42 shots.
“I was just happy for the whole team and the coaches as well,” Neely said. “All of my buddies have been playing together for a while now and it was good to win it together.”
Neely says he was also happy for his goalie partner who recorded the shutout in the semi-final game.
“We have both done so well this year,” he said. “Tucker is such an amazing goalie and I’ve learned so much from him. He’s such a good friend and a really good teammate.”
The winning goal of last night’s championship game was scored with three minutes left by Cal Murphy. The other two Orillia goal scores were Kevin Eemules and Maracle Colson.
Winkel says his team was relieved to come out with the championship after playing nine games in the last seven days.
