Stratford Early Bird Summary - By Erin Heisz, News, Major Peewee Rep, U12-U13 (PeeWee), 2017-2018 (Stratford Minor Hockey Association)

Early Bird Tournament Stratford
Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Warriors vs Toronto Eagles

The first annual Early Bird Tournament for Stratford saw the Scotiabank Major Peewees facing off against the Toronto Eagles. A few teams in the tournament we had history with but these were completely unknown opponents. The forwards started off aggressively and within 2 minutes of play we had a goal! Owen Holloway cycled down low and Ayden Hakkers put it home. Shortly after we saw Cole Meadows on the side pass out to Jared Gould who made a beauty sauce to Jake Heinbuch in the slot for goal #2! The Warriors got on the power play and Danny Van Straaten shot one off the post. The next few minutes were a gongshow of uneven play with a 4 on 4, 5 on 3, 5 on 4 and finally with no change in score back to full strength for both teams. Kiefer MacNeil in net had some great saves during that time, especially a tricky puck off a tip. The boys got a pair of goals to start the period and ended the same way. Kaden Brame shot a pass to Ethan Pearce who cut in front of the goalie and slid it around him to make it 3-0! Hakkers got an assist on a play that saw Gould make an amazing cross ice pass to Van Straaten who put it between the pipes!

The second period started with Wes Duiker taking a whistling shot from the point. MacNeil made a couple of saves with pads and glove. Halfway through the period the Warriors got their third penalty. Meadows skated hard to kill the penalty. Pearce generated some shorthanded offence with a shot. The Eagles finally broke through and got a goal while up a man. The score was now 4-1. Sam Jeffrey tried to quickly get the goal back with slap shots from the point. Van Straaten, Holloway and Hakkers were making slick passes and firing off rockets at the Eagles net. Brame was getting in good positions and generating scoring chances as well. MacNeil was getting more and more shots on him as the game went on but wasn’t letting anything else through. Gould’s patience to make the perfect pass generated some fans to test out a new nickname “The bringer of plays” - homage to one of our favourite Blue Jays. Duiker used his wheels to stop plays before they even really got started mid ice. Brame also was helping out with the defence.

The Warriors were up 4-1 to start the third period. Van Straaten sent a zinger off the bucket of the opposing keeper. The fourth Warriors penalty was called and Duiker helped kill it well. Back full strength, Luke Heisz dumped the puck up and Gould got it over to Pearce. Pearce shot from the slot through a crowd and made it 5-1! MacNeil was getting a lot of physical pressure from the Eagles and defended his crease. The game ended with 2 more Warriors penalties and the defence all showed strength and endurance to kill them both. We won 5-1!!

Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Warriors vs London Mustangs Purple

The last match up between our Scotiabank Warrior and this London team was intense but our boys were ready for the challenge in the Tavistock arena. Ethan Pearce got an early goal from the top of the circle with assists going to Luke Heisz and Kaden Brame! We then got on a power play but time had to be called so Coach MacNeil could make it out to help goaltender Liam Parsons with a broken strap. Luke Heisz had a nice poke off the bench to send a play down the ice. Kaden Brame had a great shot that was loose and a Mustangs player appeared to dive on their own goalie who finally reached out a glove to smother it. Danny Van Straaten made a nice pass despite being on his knees in middle ice. Owen Holloway got our second

goal with another sweet pass from Van Straaten and an assist to Sam Jeffrey as well. Zach Richardson, Luke Zorgdrager and Ryan Middegaal were peppering the goalie trying to increase our lead. Other than having his strap break, Parsons had zero excitement as there was not a single shot on net for the whole period!

Leading 2-0, the Warriors took nothing for granted and had tight defence throughout the second period. We got a penalty and a few seconds later so did the Mustangs to give us a 4 on 4. For the second game in a row we had a procession of uneven play that ended with no change in score. Pearce had a great shot that fans thought went in but was actually trapped under the goalie. A late change caused a defence to have to take a draw and we saw Heisz move into the circle. Then a minute later Jeffrey had to do the same thing! Parsons had a big save on a breakaway shot. Middegaal was making nice passes to move the puck up the ice.

The third period started with a power play and the Warriors had some great scoring chances. Hackers hit the crossbar on a shot. The score remained 2-0. Heisz was making passes up to Richardson and Brame who were in good positions for the outlet. There was heavy pressure on the Mustangs goalie but he stayed solid. A penalty was called on the Warriors in their end and Parsons continued his shut out! The Mustangs goalie was pulled to make it a 6 on 4. Pearce ended the game with an empty netter from Brame and Jake Heinbuch. We continued undefeated for the tournament with another win!!

Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Warriors vs Cambridge Hawks

The Scotiabank Major Peewee Warriors efforts had paid off on the first day of the Early Bird Tournament and they were undefeated heading into Saturday’s two games. They were squaring off against a well known aggressive opponent, the Cambridge Hawks. The game started with back and forth play for the first half of the period. We got on a power play but didn’t score until it was over when we saw Owen Holloway shoot on net and Danny Van Straaten bang in the rebound! Kiefer MacNeil in net had a number of saves. At the end of the period Cambridge tied it up on a good wrist shot.

MacNeil showed off his stacked pad saves with a pair near the start of the second. The Warriors went on their legendary penalty kill and the score stayed 1-0. Zach Richardson used his wheels to almost beat the Hawks goalie to the puck. Jake Heinbuch made a slick pass to Holloway who hit the post with his shot. A debatable too many men penalty got called on Stratford and the Hawks took the opportunity to score. Our turn came for another power play right at the end of the period. The buzzer went and score was 2-1.

The third period saw a pair of Hawks goals make it 4-1. The Warriors were working hard to get the goals back but the Hawks were maintaining tight D. A 4 minute was called for a bad slash by Cambridge. Holloway had a good scoring chance. The game ended 4-1 for the Hawks.

Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Warriors vs Parry Sound Shamrocks

The well run Early Bird Tournament saw the Scotiabank Major Peewee Warriors start a little early agains the Parry Sound Shamrocks. The first period saw a three early penalties for the Warriors. The first penalty the Shamrocks scored on, the second was killed well and the third saw Luke Heisz score short handed from the point! Jake Heinbuch picked up the assist on that goal. The Warriors really hit their stride then and dominated the rest of the period. Danny Van Straaten got the puck to Ayden Hakkers who deaked out the goalie then passed it to Owen Holloway who tapped it into an open net. Cole Meadows and Heinbuch moved the puck onto the stick of Jared Gould who got goal #3! We were winning 3-1 now. Zach Richardson had a really strong penalty kill when we had another kid in the box for body checking. He almost put a wrap around in to end the first.

Four on four play started within a few seconds of the whistle when the Shamrocks got a penalty for tripping. Both penalties were killed but then Stratford got their 6th penalty in 20 minutes of play and the score remained 3-1. Hakkers and Van Straaten got assists on a Holloway goal where the scramble in front of th net led to a backhand puck in the five hole. The Shamrocks put some pressure on us but Liam Parsons was more than ready in net for them and made a couple of solid saves.

Hakkers got a hat trick of assists when he got the puck to Van Straaten who sniped it top shelf after walking out from the corner! Stratford was up 5-1 but knew every goal counted towards making the final championship game of the tournament. Ryan Middegaal helped Holloway get a real hat trick when he got it to him in the slot to make it 6-1! Three more Warriors penalties were called as the game wound down but the penalty kill lines dug deep and kept the score 6-1, winning them a spot in the championship game!!

Championship Game Early Bird Tournament
Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Warriors vs Cambridge Hawks

The Scotiabank Stratford Major Peewee Warriors were ready for a rematch against the Cambridge Hawks on Sunday morning. The Hawks put early pressure on us and Ethan Pearce finally got it out by sending it rolling on end out all the way down to enable a line change. Ryan Middegaal shot from the point. Pearce had a well timed back check to break up a play. Kiefer MacNeil had the first of many amazing saves with players crunched up close in his crease. The Hawks were unrelenting and got on the board 1-0. Warriors got on a power play and then a 5 on 3 for 20 seconds. Ayden Hakkers got a loose puck at the blue line, danced around the Hawks and sent it top shelf to tie us up!

The air was tense as the second period began in a tie game. Wes Duiker sauced it to Hakkers who made a fabulous selfless pass to Van Straaten. Van Straaten used his excellent stick handling to deak out the goalie and put the Warriors in the lead 2-1! The rest of the period was spent mostly short handed. The Hawks got one in the net but it was called off for a high stick. Luke Zorgdrager blocked 2 shots with his ankles. Pearce sent a hard shot from our blue line onto the Hawks net. MacNeil had no stick during a 4 on 4 for a tense 15 seconds. Middegaal tirelessly fought off the attackers. Zach Richardson had a strong performance during the various penalties. MacNeil made an impossible diving glove save to keep the tie. Kaden

Brame made an excellent back check to break up a big play. Zorgdrager shut down a 3 on 1. Luke Heisz then had a 3 on 1 and forced a shot with MacNeil easily saved. The Hawks got another goal to make it 3-2 at the end of the period.

Middegaal had great defensive moves throughout the 3rd period. There was incredible pressure on the Warriors but they held tight at 3-2. MacNeil was standing on his head with save after save. We had a pair of power plays in the last few minutes and fans were hardly breathing with the hopes of tieing it up. There were interruptions to our power play flow from 2 time outs and a few minorly injured players. MacNeil rushed to the bench and the boys fought so hard to score. Sam Jeffrey made an empty net save to keep a chance alive. The last minute wound down and the game ended 3-2 for Cambridge. The Warriors should all be proud of playing hard and honourably right to the end of the tournament and having another medalling finish!

Coach’s Corner by Dale Zorgdrager

With this tournament now closed out the Peewees have a year to date record in tournament and league games of a combined 7-5-2. The Warriors also close out the month with 40 goals for compared to just 31 goals against. The coaches are very pleased with the overall results so far. We have 12 of 14 skaters in a plus position in terms of +/- showing good balance. The coaches commented to the team on what a successful month September was getting 7 wins, having timely offensive contributions from all 3 lines, and having fairly consistent strong play by the defence and both goalies, giving the team an overall goals against average of only 2.36. These players are truly playing quite well and building confidence in themselves along the way. We are excited about a month of regular scheduled practices to work on all aspects of our systems and skills, including bringing much more discipline into how we play both as a team and individually. Bring on all the league games in October!