Minor PeeWee AE’s Victorious in Pre-season Tournament, News, Minor PeeWee, 2019, U12 (Guelph Minor Hockey Association)

The Minor PeeWee AE’s traveled to Markham over the weekend to take part in their first game action of the year in the Markham Waxers September Showdown.  Over 5 games the team overwhelmed their opponents out-scoring them by a combined 40-2 GF/GA, securing the tournament Championship.

The tournament started where it would end with a matchup against regular season rivals the Glancaster Bombers. Friday morning the boys had their first game action of the year handing the Bombers a 10-0 defeat. The scoring leaders for the game were Davison and Markwood each with hat-tricks and Big Max secured the shutout making several key saves along the way. 

The tournament resumed Saturday morning with a match up against tournament hosts Markham. In a tough game, the Gryphons came out on top 6-0 with Lucus Jones earning his first rep shutout in his first start. Scoring was led by Peyton Smith with two goals and an assist.

Saturday afternoon the Gryphons returned to the ice with a match up knowing that a win would secure first overall. While the boys were tired after spending the break between games bowling, they managed to outwork the Pickering Panthers and skated to a 7-1 win. Once again the defence was exceptional, allowing only a couple shots in the game, and Heroux came up big when called upon. Leading the way in scoring were Byard, Smith and Wilson with a goal and two assists each.

Saturday afternoon’s win set up a rematch with the Panthers in the semifinals early Sunday morning. This time a well rested Gryphon squad came out firing scoring 4 in each of the first and second periods and adding 6 in the third for a final score of 14-0. Lucas Jones once again pitched a shutout with solid play throughout, making several spectacular saves early in the third when the Panthers were trying desperately to get back into the game. Leading the way offensively for the Gryphons was Conner Laskowski with three goals and two assists.

Sunday’s tournament finale was a rematch with the Bombers. The Gryphons got off to a quick start with Kenny Beynon scoring on the first shift, banging in a cross-crease pass from Jackson Byard, who was fed by Milan Wilson after winning a battle in the corner. Following that early goal the two teams skated fairly evenly in back and forth battles until late in the first period when Peyton Smith danced across the Bomber blue line and ripped a backhand shot past the goalie. 

After the Smith goal the Gryphon’s aggressive play resulted in multiple concurrent penalties. With the Gryphons down 2 men for almost 4 consecutive minutes they turned in some of their best work of the game with solid collapsing defence, excellent goal tending, and smart passing that created several scoring chances. 

After killing off the second period penalty problems, the Bombers finally capitalized on a tired Gryphon squad to close the score to 2-1. That would be as close as they would get. 

The Gryphons poured it on in the third, narrowly missing out on scoring several times, with the Bomber goaltender slamming the door shut over and over. However with just over 3 minutes left in the game, Nate Taylor deflected a low point shot from Michael Kusiac into the bottom right corner of the Bomber net putting the game out of reach. 

Max Heroux was solid in net and the entire defence group stepped up to the challenge of the aggressive, forechecking Bomber squad to earn the tournament victory for Gryphons. 

The Gryphons return to the ice on Wednesday in an exhibition game against the Waterloo Wolves.