The Stratford Warrior Hiller Realty Minor PeeWee’s took part in the Annual Stratford Silver Stick qualifying tournament over the holidays. The tournament brought in some quality ‘AA’ opponents and Stratford performed well against all competition but unfortunately did not secure enough points to make it through the preliminary round.
The Warriors opened the tournament with a 4-2 loss to the eventual champion the Mississauga Braves, after falling behind 3-0 early in the third period Stratford began to chip away at the lead and eventually came within one goal as Michael Messerschmidt provided 2 goals for the Warrior’s midway through the third period. A late goal by the Braves secured the victory but it was a solid team effort all around which Stratford was determined to build off of in the remaining games.
In the second game of the tournament the Warriors were matched up against Orillia in what turned into a defensive battle and both sides had excellent goaltending. The Stratford defense group was excellent collapsing in their zone and moving the puck into open ice. Mitch Watt was great in goal surrendering only one goal in the middle of the third period, which was answered only a few minutes later by Josh McNaughton who made a strong play to drive the net and finish a rebound produced off of some great fore-checking by Dean Jackson and Jakob Partridge. The two sides traded a few more chances before the final buzzer went in an eventual 1-1 tie.
In the final game of the first round, Stratford knew that they needed a win to give themselves a chance to advance any further. Matched up against a strong Kitchener Jr. Rangers team the Warriors came out with one of their best efforts of the season. Stratford played a fairly disciplined hockey game and the entire team was excellent clearing the defensive zone, and moving the puck to the open man. Josh McNaughton provided all the offense with 3 goals and Tyler Parr was great in the net freezing the puck at key times and controlling the pace for the Warriors. At the final buzzer the score was 3-1 Stratford, unfortunately it wasn’t enough and the Warriors tournament ended with the victory. Stratford finished the preliminary round 1-1-1 and played some inspired hockey in the tournament which they will look to build off of when the season continues Wednesday night against West London.