This past weekend the Rheo Thompson Tier 3 East
Novice Warriors participated in the Byron West London Tournament. The Warriors
played some good hockey and had a stronger start but ended up losing to the
Champions West London 3A and runners up Flamborough in their third and fourth
games.
The first game the boys played Burlington and fell behind on an early goal less than a minute in, but rallied back to tie the game on a 2nd periord unassisted goal by Andrew Davis. Jake Taylor played great for Stratford, making a spectacular blocker save along with many others to help keep the boys in the game. Hudsyn Chaput put the Warriors ahead at the 5:36 minute mark of the 3rd with the helper going to Andrew Davis, but Burlington would answer back late in the 3rd to tie the game. The Warriors showed an excellent team effort this game escpecially while killing off the their 3 penalties charged against them. Jake Taylor was awarded the player of the game.
The second game for the Warriors was early Friday afternoon, where they would face a much larger Dorchester Dragons team. The boys had first crack at the scoreboard when Andrew Davis and Hudsyn Chaput would break away on a two man rush, but as luck would have it for the Dragons, Chaput ripped a hard wrist shot off the crossbar to keep the score knotted at 0. Dorchester would then pull ahead 3-0 heading into the 3rd period but the boys did not give up. The Warriors defence would then shut down the Dragons scoring down with some solid effort from Mason Bauld and Charlie Holloway, Owen Vangestel and Nash McIlroy. The 3rd period Hudsyn Chaput would add a pair of goals with assists belonging to Rem Hruden and Blake McIntosh. Dorchester would add another in the 3rd for a final score of 4-2. Liam Benton played a solid game and was named player of the game.
The final 2 games of the tournament were against the runners up, Flamborough Sabres and division champions West London 3A. Early Saturday morning was the time for the first game against the Sabres, they would end up falling behind in the 1st period 4-0, but did not give up and showed some great effort and character while battling back, although time was not on there side. Hudsyn Chaput would score early in the 3rd period with the assist going to Ethan Priestap and less than a minute later Andrew Davis would score and unassisted goal to gain momentum for the boys. Although their effort was there, they just didn't have the time or luck to complete the comeback with the Sabres scoring 2 late goals to put the damper on the game. Final score was 7-2. Maddyx Chaput played a super gritty game and was awarded player of the game for the Warriors. The final game of the tournament was against West London 3A, the eventual tournament champions. Charilie Holloway put in one of his best efforts of the season on defence and was named the player of the game for the Warriors.