Minor peewees wrap up the season

March 13, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart
They may have lost the final game, but the Caledon Hawks minor peewee A team did it in style.
With time running out on the clock in their game against the Burlington Eagles at Caledon East last Thursday (Mar. 6), the Hawks went into overdrive and turned out a blistering pace in the waning moments of the third period scoring to make it a 5-4 game with a minute left on the clock.
With an empty net and extra attacker on the ice, the peewees played a hard final minute and had a few good opportunities but they couldn’t find the back of the net to tie the game before the buzzer sounded.
It was a close battle, with the game being tied at two until the Burlington squad managed to get the edge in the third period to take the lead.
Hawk goalie JC Belford-Sim had a solid game in net and produced plenty of saves over the 60 minutes of play.
Caledon goals came from Shane Davis-Thrower, Patrick Duffey, Matthew Zanelli and Nicholas Solimena.
“We did much better than last season. We had a nice run in the Tri-Countys,” said Hawks’ head coach Mike Duffey. “We had overtime in our first game then one our next three, then lost to Flamborough and Oakville.”
Considering it was the team’s last game of the season, Duffey said their usual structured play pretty much gave way to some more individual style.
You can’t blame them. With a final game and no hope of advancing, the players took a little extra licence on the ice when it came to showboating and seeing how far they could carry the puck.
“It was a little sloppy for us,” Duffey said. “I think both teams — the kids were wanting to score some goals and have some fun and carry the puck in their last game. It was a rigid kind of game we typically play. It was the last game so they were out to have some fun and carry the puck and do some things they don’t normally do.”
At the end of the season, Duffey looks back on a team that worked hard and made improvements over the year.
“We improved tremendously,” he commented. “We do some Hockey Canada testing that we just finished up. Just about everyone on the team improved in their skills, puck speed, foot speed and it really showed on the ice. Their game really came around. We beat teams that we couldn’t beat all last year.”

The Caledon Hawks minor peewee A team battles against the Burlington Eagles at Caledon East arena. The Hawks were playing their final match of the season and put out a huge effort late in the game, but couldn’t tie it up and had to settle for a 5-4 loss.
Photo by Brian Lockhart