On Dec.14 the Food Basics Atom AE Team traveled to Mitchell for their last regular season meeting. The Sailors playing again with a short bench due to injuries played a tough game taking the lead early in the first and holding the lead for the period. Again early in the second Goderich would notch another, midway through the period Mitchell would get on the board but again the Sailors struck back ending the period with a 3-1 lead. Mitchell would come out hard early in the third scoring another but the Sailors would answer back just 2 min. later. The remainder of the period was filled with end to end action with Mitchell notching another and moving within a goal. The Sailors goaltender Liam Shore would have to face a penalty shot from Mitchell in the final minutes making a great save to help the Sailors hold them off to take a 4 -1 win to break a month long losing streak. Goals were scored by Cameron Brenner (2), Andy Clark (1), and Mitchell Consitt with assists going to Thomas Pritchard (2), Harrison Lobb (2) and a single to Cameron Brenner.
On Dec.20 the Food Basics Atom AE Team hosted the Brussels Bulls in their final meeting of the season as well. The Sailors came out playing hard getting on the board first early in the period followed by another minutes later. The Sailors again would score early in the second to take a three goal lead but was soon answered back by the Bulls. Again the Sailors would strike first early in the third but was quickly answered by the Bulls. The remainder of the period would be hard fought with the Sailors putting the Bulls away with a late goal in the period to take a 5 -3 win. Goals scored for the Sailors were Andy Clark (3), Justin Leitch (1), and Cameron Brenner (1) with assists going to Harrison Lobb (2) and singles by Thomas Pritchard, Kyle Larkin, Andy Clark, Harley Oster, Mitchell Consitt and Carston Gardiner.
On Dec. 27 the Team traveled to Monkton to face Elma Logan in for their final meeting of the season but the winning streak would end there. With too much turkey and sugar plums the Sailors had no legs and faced a one sided game with Elma Logan winning by a score of 7 – 0.
Zurich Tournament
The Team traveled to play in the Zurich Thunder Annual Tournament. The team’s first game was against the Lucan Irish and would end up being one of the team’s best efforts of the season. The Sailors started off the scoring early in the game with a goal by Kyle Larkin assisted by Justin Leitch, that goal would stand unanswered until the last minute of the period when Lucan scored to tie it up. The second period again would be filled with action at both ends with the Sailors taking the lead back at 7:54 with a goal from Harrison Lobb assisted by Oster and Consitt. Lucan would not give up coming back and scoring just 2 min. later to even it up. The third period was again filled with scoring chances at both ends but great goaltending from Liam Shore would help keep Lucan at bay. With just 14.9 sec. remaining in the game Kody Ritchie stepped in from the blue line and found the top corner of the net to get the game winner.
The second game of the tourney the Sailors would face Norwich with what would turn out again to be one of the Teams best games of the season. The first period was to be a pretty even match up with no scoring, but penalty trouble would help Norwich get on the board early in the second. The Sailors let up for a couple of minutes and allowed Norwich to get two more unanswered goals in the period. The third again would see lots of penalties from both teams as the referees started to lose control of the game and emotions. But with great goaltending from Kevin den Dunnen the Sailors would hold Norwich off taking a 3 – 0 loss.
The B Championship on Dec. 30 would see the Sailors face the Blyth Bulldogs a team that we had not been able to crack all season. The first period would end with the Bulldogs getting a goal late in the period. Early in the second the Bulldogs would grab another with Goderich answering back with a goal from Andy Clark. That would however end the scoring for the Sailors as the team allowed Blyth to take over the game winning all the battles big and small to end up taking a 4-1 loss.
Great effort this weekend Team, lets keep up the good work