Ontario Ice Fishing Challenge has begun!
For the whole month of February contestants are catching, measuring and releasing all different kinds of fish for the chance at thousands of dollars in prize money and fishing equipment as well. Since we are one week in you can go to the Angler’s Atlas website and see the leaderboard for your area. There are lots of familiar names already, such as in Central Manitoulin, Brian Stapleton currently has the longest pike at 106 inches and Robert James is barely behind with his 105.4 inch freshwater barracuda. If you want to enter you have to register on the Angler’s Atlas website, pay your 20 bucks and then download the MyCatch app and then you are all set to start logging in your fish!
Panther Points!
The Manitoulin Panther U15 team was in Powassan for the Keith Barton Rep Tournament this past weekend. With three players out, the team called up affiliates Jack Bridgeman and Greyson Orford to flesh out the small 12 skater side. Going in the Panthers were also down another defensive player, as Chase Taylor was sitting a pre-existing suspension.
Opening against the Deep River Knights, Jack B put the Panthers up 1- 0 early, set up by linemates Greyson and Kyle Nodecker. Shortly thereafter Jack B took a solid but clean hit that put him out of the game. Down to two lines, the rest of the team pulled together as JC Paquette made it 2-0 with a goal set up by Ava Corbiere in the second and Jack Carter sealed it unassisted for a 3-0 win.
Next up was scheduled to be a tilt against the hometown Powassan Hawks, but a foe familiar to assignors all over the North—a shortage of officials—lead to the cancellation of the afternoon’s games. So the Panthers found themselves waiting until 7:15 for the Pembroke Kings. Saturday night, Jack B struck early on a beautiful set up from Peyton Ominika. Then Kyle potted one, with Jack B adding another, putting the Panthers up 3-0, both goals unassisted. Pembroke fought back, but Jack B restored a three-goal cushion at 4-1 on the power play, from a selfless set up from JC. The Kings rallied to make it 4-3, but after Jack B had added another, Peyton iced it for the Manitoulin side with back to back 3rd period markers, the last one from Jack B, to take the game 7-3.
So it was off to the semis on Sunday against Powassan. Jack C opened it early from JC for a 1-0 start. Cooper Farquhar added a power play marker from Jack B before Powassan rallied to make it 2-1 at the end of the first. When Jack B made it 3-1, Powassan countered to keep it close. JC notched one and the MP side was up 4-2, only to have Powassan come back yet again and keep it close, 4-3 going into the third. The game was very close, with a bigger, harder hitting Powassan side dominating play on the boards. The referees did an exceptional job managing the game, and a match that had the potential for ugliness was left to the skill of the players to decide. With every strong push Powassan put on them, goalie Ciera Sokoloski and her defensive corps, Chase Taylor, Ava Corbiere, Jonah Balfe and Jack Carter turned back the Hawks and held the lead. Finally in the third Jack B blew the tight game wide open with 4 straight, unassisted, and the Panthers were off to the finals with a convincing 8-3 win.
The finals saw two undefeated sides, your Panthers and the Essa Eagles meet up. Coming in, Essa had to be favoured after scoring 28 goals in three games, while surrendering only two. The Essa side was big, with three full lines of forwards that wore the Panthers down. Manitoulin hung tough though, with stellar goaltending from Ciera through the first allowing a single goal, and only a Jack B crossbar at the buzzer preventing the Panthers from making it even at 1s after the first. In the second though the relentless onslaught of the full Eagles proved too much for a tired Panthers team, and by the third Manitoulin were barely hanging on. What turned out to be a 6-0 loss was not indicative of the play though, as without the stellar goaltending of Panther keeper Ciera, who fought tooth and nail to the last second, it could have been much, much worse. Halfway through the third the familiar ‘slap slap slap’ of the Essa goaltender stick was heard through the arena. He wasn’t warning his team of the end of a power play though, he was applauding the gutsy performance being put on by the diminutive counterpart at the other end of the rink.
A good sport is good for sports
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