The Scotiabank Peewee Warriors finished their regular season on a high taking three of a possible four points.
On Saturday afternoon the Warriors hosted the Sarnia Sting at the Allman Arena. Slow starts continued to haunt the team as Sarnia opened the scoring late in the first period on the power play. Stratford picked up steam as the game progressed and replied with a power play goal of their own midway through the middle frame. Zach Dow won a clean faceoff in the offensive zone back to Brett Maguire who rifled a slap shot home to make it 1-1. The third period was a wide open affair, seeing the teams combine for a total of six goals. A gritty effort resulted in the goal ahead goal for the Warriors when David Shantz banged home a nice feed from Austin Taylor. Calvin McCorkindale also assisted. The Warriors extended their lead ninety seconds later when Everett Hawkins finished off a pass from Hayden Arms. After Sarnia got within one, Stratford regained their two goal lead when defencemen Charlie Rankin fired a beautiful pinpoint stretch pass to Hawkins to send him in on a breakaway, who made no mistake, beating the Sting goalie for his second of the game. Arms drew the other assist. Dylan Hall finished off the scoring, unassisted, late in the period to make it a 5-3 final. Liam McCann was solid in net securing the victory.
On a rare Sunday morning game the Scotiabank Peewee Warriors travelled to Kitchener to battle the Rangers. Rarer still is an early Stratford lead but that’s just what happened when McCorkindale fired home a low wrist shot thirty seconds into the game to go up 1-0. Taylor and defencemen Brenden Moorehead assisted. Strong goaltending at both ends of the ice kept it a one goal game until midway thru the second period when Dow rifled home a sweet pass from Carter Lewis just as the power play expired to extend the lead to two. Kitchener finally managed to solve Warrior goaltender Spencer Lazeravich early in the third to make it a 2-1 game. With the Ranger goalie on the bench, Kitchener banged home a heartbreaking goal with six seconds left in the game to make it a 2-2 final.
The Scotiabank Peewee Warriors begin the playoffs this coming weekend, opening up at home against the Sarnia Sting. Game time is yet to be determined.