Kincardine Home Hardware Novices stunned in Silver Stick semi-finals

It was an unfortunate ending for a team built to compete for a Novice "B" championship in the 28th annual Kincardine Regional Silver Stick hockey tournament, held Dec. 27-30.

The host Kincardine squad (ranked second in the tournament) was simply outworked by the eventual champs, the Mitchell Meteors, in the semi-finals by a 2-1 margin. Kincardine had beaten Mitchell in the three previous meetings leading up to the tournament.

The road to the semi-finals wasn’t an easy one for the orange and white.

Kincardine opened the event Saturday morning against the Walkerton Capitals. Although heavily favoured in the game, the Kinucks could not seem to break through a stingy Walkerton defence for much of the game. Kincardine eventually found the back of the Walkerton net on three occasions and kept the Capitals off the score sheet in a 3-0 win.
Jude Hodgins and Trent Houghton both slammed in rebounds, and sniper Brandon Bishop rounded out the scoring for Kincardine. Gavin Beaty, Aidan Renaud and Bishop earned assists. Goalies Rowan Cherrett and Jack Anderson split duties in the win.

The Kinucks faced rival Saugeen Shores Saturday afternoon in the last of their round-robin preliminary games. Kincardine entered the game with a 1-1 record against the Storm.

It was a disastrous opening frame for Kincardine. Without much pep in their game, the Kinucks spotted the Storm a 2-0 lead after the first period. Renaud cut the lead in half with an unassisted marker before the end of the second period. Halfway into the third, Beaty sent in Bishop on a break to tie the game at two. Neither team could solve the solid goaltending from then on as the teams skated to a 2-2 tie.

With a win and a tie, Kincardine was ranked fourth out of the nine total teams and earned a berth in the quarter-finals against the fifth-ranked Hanover Falcons Monday.

The bout with Hanover was one that neither team will soon forget.

Bishop put the Kinucks on top with less than a minute to play in the opening period, from Houghton and Renaud. Hanover pulled even midway through the second. From then on, it was an epic goaltending battle between Kincardine’s Anderson and Hanover’s Colby Booth-Housego.
Neither goalie was prepared to take the loss in the elimination match as the game remained knotted at one through the third period, five minutes of five-on-five overtime, and five minutes of four-on-four second overtime. The marathon quarter-final was then pushed to a shoot-out to determine the winner.

Through three shoot-out rounds of three shooters apiece, as ironic as the game had played out, the teams remained tied. Each goalie allowed only a single goal through the first nine shooters.

Ty McQuillin was called upon to open the fourth round of the shoot-out and buried a wrist shot through the legs of the Hanover netminder to pull the Kinucks ahead. It proved to be all Kincardine needed as Anderson stopped all three Falcon attempts in the round, and Kincardine out-lasted Hanover, 2-1, in a packed Ripley Arena.

Three hours later, it was time for the Kinucks to face Mitchell to see who would join Twin Centre in the Novice "B" Championship game Tuesday.

It was obvious from the onset of the semi-final affair what team was more rested. Mitchell took an early 1-0 lead and hemmed the Kinucks for the majority of the game in their own end.
Bishop managed to get loose early in the third period to tie the game, assisted by Hodgins and Murray Collins, but the Meteors were relentless in their constant pressure. Quite simply, the Kinucks had nothing left in the tank to compete at the high level needed to advance.
Mitchell scored the game-winner with 1:21 left in the third to eliminate the Kinucks. Cherrett was the main reason the Kinucks kept it close, stopping an unwavering onslaught of pucks from Meteor attackers.
Of note:

• All Novice games were played in Ripley with the finals played in Kincardine
• The Ripley Wolves Senior "A" team gave up their dressing room for the weekend for the Kincardine Novices
• Mitchell defeated favourite Twin Centre in the final, 4-3, to take the championship
• Other teams in the Novice "B" division were BCH, Listowel, and Tavistock
• Dundalk won the Novice "C" championship over Wallace