The South Kent Lightning Bantam Reps can skate away from their first tournament with their heads held high as they played some great hockey this past weekend at the Jack Tolhurst Memorial tournament at the Wayne Gretzky Centre in Brantford
Friday’s game was against local rivals, Dresden Junior Kings in a close game. Going into the third period with no score, the Lightning turned up the heat and within the first minute of the third period, Quinn Pickering & Derek Schieman set up Ethan Gagnier to get the game winning and only goal of the game. James Larsh earns his first shutout of the season.
Saturday, the boys faced Goderich Sailors for game 2. After a blanked first period, the Sailors came on strong and scored a goal on a power play at 3:35 then added an insurance goal with only 56 seconds left in the period. The Lightning dominated the third period and scored a power play goal at the 4-minute mark then tied up the game less than two minutes later. Scoring for South Kent was Kolby Caughy and Braydon Segeren. Assists go to Cory Beecroft, Aiden Rigby, Cam Wellington and Brett Davidson, The game ended in a tie.
Their next game Saturday was against Huron Bruce Blizzard which also saw a blanked first period but that quickly changed in the second period when South Kent’s Caughy scored on a power play, with assistance from Beecroft & Wellington. Only a minute later, Segeren put another one on the scoreboard, this time assisted by Caughy and Trent DeCook. 45 seconds into the third period, Mac Anderson put one away with help from Caughy and Beecroft. With less than 5 minutes it’s left, the Blizzard scored. In an attempt to at least tie it up, they pulled their goalie but Caughy got a breakaway to score an empty netter for a final score of 4-1, and onto the semi finals they go.
Sunday’s semi final game was by and far the best they played all weekend as South Kent Lightning and Hagersville Hawks were both playing to win. In under 45 seconds, the Hawks started the game by taking advantage of the power play. The second period was blanked as spectators watched a great effort by both teams. Kolby Caughy tied up the game early in the third, with Anderson & Beecroft assisting. Onto overtime #1, no score. Ditto for overtime #2. A real nail biter for players and spectators. 24 seconds into the third overtime, the Hagersville won the semi finals. Daniel Rodger earned himself Player of the Game puck. An amazing effort by the entire team!
This week they face St Mary’s Rock and Strathroy Jr Rockets.