Manitoulin Minor!
Congratulations to the Gore Bay Bruins U-18s squad who won the Manitoulin Minor Hockey Championship last week. The Bruins swept the Mindemoya Thunder in their best of three series! Game 1 was Thursday with a 3-2 victory with goals scored by Corbin Best, Aiden Case and Rylan Lock.
In Game 2 on Friday, Gore Bay won 4-1 thanks in part to offense from Eli Lock (3) and Aiden Case!
Hats off to players: Avery Nodecker, Kyle Nodecker, Blaec Quinlan, Ethan Witty, Aiden Case, Ryder Lockyer, Kowan Orford, Eli Lock, Jackson Chevrette, Alex Wilson-Zegil, Abby Hawke, Gage Patterson, Rylan Lock, Greyson Orford, Cody Campbell, Corbin Best, Tessa Merrylees and Hailey Hawke. Not to be forgotten are some of the team staff. Their head coach is Joel Lock, assistant coaches Brad Hawke and Travis Orford as well as manager Kara Hawke!
Gore Bay’s season record was 18 wins, one loss and one tie before playoff games. Here is a fun and rare fact, there were four sets of siblings: the Orfords, Locks, Hawkes and Nodeckers! That must be a record somewhere!
Mustang minute
Congratulations to the Manitoulin Mustang senior volleyball squad who competed at the NOSSA championships last week, finishing fourth. Head Coach Tina Pennie-Balfe was proud of the team as they had close games with all the teams and played the best they had all season against all strong teams. In their match against the eventual NOSSA winners, they took it to three games, winning the first set then narrowly losing the second set 25-23 and set three 15-12!
The team featured Emery Watson, Harmony Panamick, Aspen Debassige, Mya Balfe, Saraya Eshkawkogan, Morgan Green, Maren Kasunich, Mackenzie Green and assistant coach Neil Debassige.
Off his Rock, hockey!
Kohyn Eshkawkogan and the North York Rangers have wrapped up their 2023/24 regular season going 9-0-1 in the last 10 games! They closed out the season defeating the Toronto Red Wings 7-1 with the Rangers finishing with the most wins in the GTHL U16 AAA Division. After 36 games of league play, they wrapped the season with a 30-5-1 record and in the last 10 games are ranked No. 1 in Canada!
Kohyn is currently sitting with nine goals, 40 assists and is an incredible +70 on the season so far. Up next is the first round of the playoffs where they will take on the Don Mills Flyers. The winner of that series will advance to the league semi-finals and will earn a berth into the prestigious OHL Cup. Way to go, ‘Ko Show!
Panther Points!
It’s playdown time! What an exciting night for the Manitoulin U-18 Lady Panthers team and fans on Friday night in the NEMI Rec Centre. It was game one of their regional playdown series that kicked off against the North Bay Jr. Lakers. In front of a huge crowd, the promise of a close, fast-paced game lived up to expectations. The Lakers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before time expired in the first period. A bit of a slow start for home side Panthers but as usual, their players never quit.
In the second period, it was Ava Corbiere who opened the scoring for the Lady Panthers by banging home the rebound from a shot taken by Nelly Toulouse. This made the score 2-1 in favour of the Lakers but the Lady Panthers were taking the play to them. After being unable to capitalize on a golden opportunity her previous shift, Zahara Dube made no mistake on her next shift and buried one behind the Laker goaltender to tie the game at 2. After back-and-forth chances at both ends, the game ended in a tie as regulation time expired. This series is a first to 4 points so OT was not required to decide a winner in this game.
Coach Scot Hughson was, rightly, impressed with the game. “What a game! As we talked about during pregame, winning is fun but not really important. The will to want to win is what is important, and our Lady Panthers left it all on the ice. It was 100 percent effort that allowed them to battle back to earn the point from this game. You could feel the happiness post-game from all team members. A special shout out to Tessa Prior who received the team MVP award for this game as selected by Izzy Hughson and approved by a huge ovation from the rest of the team! Tessa exemplified the will to win not just in this game but at practices as well. Keep it up, Tessa! This series has been what we have been working towards since the team was formed. It is awesome to see that all players are determined to work as a team to achieve this goal. Games two and three, I am sure will prove to be just as exciting as game one. Game 2 will take place in Verner on February 29 at 8:30 pm. If you can’t make the trip down 17 to catch the action live, the game will be livestreamed on the Jenny Panther Facebook feed, wi-fi permitting.”
Also, the team made the trip to Sault Ste. Marie on Saturday for a double header against the Junior Greyhounds. They were on the wrong side of 1-0 and 4-1 scores but the players played hard, keeping up their strong work ethics.
The girls have another busy week coming up, playing in Verner on Thursday night in their playdown series, then it is off to Hearst on Friday for our league playoffs. All games will be available on the Jenny Panther site!
