CORNER BROOK Despite a quick start, the last Newfoundland team standing couldn’t capitalize as New Brunswick’s EDZA East beat the Tricom Bulldogs from the St. John’s metro region 6-4 for the win at the Bell Aliant Peewee Atlantic Championship Sunday.
Tricom scored nine seconds into the game when forward Nick Gosse banked one off the pad of goaltender Luc Roy. EZDA East, from Moncton, had a stronger second period and the Bulldogs never really had a chance of winning.
There was more bad news for local hockey fans, the host team Western Wolves failed to get a single victory in the tournament.
The Wolves faced EZDA East Friday and were beaten handily by the New Brunswick team 12-2. Later that day, the Tricom Bulldogs defeated the Wolves 7-1 and then on Saturday the local squad was beaten 12-3 by the Summerside Capitals of P.E.I.
Their closest game was their opener, when they lost to the Truro Bearcats 4-3.
“We had a couple of blows but that happens,” said Wolves coach Mark Robinson. “I think the kids understand that they won’t win everything, but when we lose like that it’s hard to keep our focus.”
Robinson said other teams had a bit of an advantage over the Wolves because of simple geography, with his team so spread out over the western region.
“I think most of the teams in the tournament got a lot more time working on their game than we did, and that puts us at a disadvantage,” he said. “We’re always going to be challenged here on the west coast, we have so much geography separating us, parents have to drive a long way to get kids to practices ... it’s a challenge.”
Robinson said as a coach it gets difficult to keep players focused and having fun at the same time.
Next season, he expects, things will improve.
Some good news
The Wolves did manage a couple of awards during the tournament. Wolves player Danny Walsh received the Most Sportsmanlike trophy, and Kyle Robinson received a Hard Had award.
The top scorer award went to Brennan Laverty of EDZA East, top defenceman was Noah Dobson of the Summerside Capitals, and the top forward was Alex Lewis, also of EZDA.
The top goaltender prize went to Alex MacDonald of the Truro Bearcats, and the tournament MVP was the Tricom Bulldogs’ Nick Gosse. Other Hard Hat awards went to the Truro’s Luke Smith, Summerside’s Dylan Mugridge and Tricom’s Lucas Osmond.
Other scores
In other games during the tournament, Friday the Summerside Capitals beat Tricom 4-3, then later that day beat Truro 3-2.
Truro rebounded Saturday, beating the eventual tournament champions EZDA East by a score of 7-0. In a preview of the final, Tricom shut out EZDA 2-0.
