The Horton Concrete Novice Rep Rebels spent this past weekend in Paisley participating in the Elroy Cumming Memorial Tournament and had a very successful time. With only one game scheduled for Saturday, the Rebels were in tough against a very strong defensive team from South Bruce.
Rebels goaltender Jacob Fluney was his usual heroic self and kept us in the game as we were continuously stymied at the blue line by the Blades strong D-men and found ourselves down 2-0. Kody Cook was finally able to beat the Blades goalie, but that was as close as it got, dropping a tight 2-1 decision to the eventual tournament champions. That was not the end of the fun for Saturday though as the majority of team was able to make it out to a mid season party for some good fellowship and food, not to mention about 5 hours of tobogganing!
Sunday came with our first game at 11am against our divisional rivals from Bruce Peninsula, the Predators. The coaching staff was a little worried that the boys had left all their energy on the toboggan hill the day before and despite not having access to any AP players our 8 skaters and goalie came out with something to prove. Coming out strong, the Rebels jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Carter Frook, unassisted, and a beauty by Matthew LaFond off a clean faceoff win by Cook. The Preds would answer back with one of their own before Frook would add his second unassisted to restore the 2 goal lead. The Preds would throw everything they had at Fluney but would only be able to get one more past, and the Rebels held on for a well deserved 3-2 win.
With the win, it set up a consolation final showdown with another divisional rival, the host IceDogs, from AEMHA. Bolstered by additional skater in the form of AP Jhett McKee, the Rebels looked to jump out to an early lead but were held in check by a determined 'Dogs team effort until later in the 2nd period, when Hunter McComb passed the puck to Colton King, who chipped it to Cook who broke in to score and break the deadlock. The combo of Cook from King struck again in the closing seconds of the period to send us to the 3rd up 2-0. With the way Fluney was stopping pucks, it looked to be more than enough, but the Rebels kept their feet on the gas and continued to press. Seconds into the 3rd, McComb got the puck to fellow D-man Finlay Johnston who went coast to coast to score a beauty through the 5 hole. Cook added 2 more to close out the scoring, the first unassisted, the second with the helper by Frook. Special mention to the remaining Rebels who didn't figure in the scoring but worked tirelessly towards the winning weekend, defenceman Colton Klages and forwards Simon Potter and Jhett McKee. Great job everyone, 2017 is starting off well, let's look to keep it going with league rematches this week against both the 'Dogs and Preds.