Sunday, April 1, 2012

Day 3 Major Midget Atlantics

Torbay, NL: The gold medal match up is set and the individual awards are handed out. All that is left to decide is which team will represent Atlantic Canada at the Telus Cup in Leduc Alberta, April 23-29. The final day started off with Moncton and Halifax squaring off in a very important contest and ended with a preview of Sunday's gold medal contest.

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia met early Saturday morning with Moncton needing a win to secure a spot in the Final and Halifax needing a win to keep their hopes of a repeat alive. Moncton Captain Lindon Beckwith scored twice and added an assist en route to a 3-1 win and a date with the St. John's Privateers on Sunday. Matt Bernier added an empty net goal to seal the victory in the dying seconds of the game. Bernier also had 2 assists and Luc Eagle and Kyle Beckwith added singles. Brad MacEachern replied for the Halifax Titans with a helper from John Mullaly. Beckwith and MacEachern earned player of the game honors for their respective teams, Nathan Armstrong made 20 saves for the win and Jacob Fancy 22 in the loss.

Pride was on the line in the days second game as the Cornwall Thunder (PEI) and the St. Johns Maple Leafs (Host) were both looking for their first win. Penalties was the flavor of the day as the first 8 goals were scored on the power play and St. Johns had a 5-3 lead. Cornwall fought back and tied the game in the third but Connor Donaghey (player of the game) scored with just over 7 minutes left to give the Maple Leafs a win. Also scoring for the Host team was Kyle Tibbo 1&2, Nathan Yetman 1&1, Brayden Brown 1&1, Chris Mallard and Patrick Nicolle. Brandon Pye recorded 3 assists and Cody Donaghey, Tanner Whiffen and Bradley Power had single markers. Josh Carey earned the win. For Cornwall Logan Smallman scored twice, Ross Martin, Nathan Ellis and Brock Richard once. Adding helpers was Willie Gaudet with 2 and Brother Benji with 1 as well as Jake McKenna 2, Ellis, Brendan Gaudet and Logan Doiron. Alex Kelly and Grant Grady shared duties in goal and Thunder captain Stefan Lapiere was player of the game.

The final round robin game featured the two teams playing for gold on Sunday and the coaches used it as a chance to rest their top guys, in fact Moncton's captain Lindon Beckwith didn't play at all. The Flyers came out on top with a 5-1 victory to secure home ice advantage and last change which could be a factor in the final. Thomas Mansbridge (player of the game) scored twice and added an assist for New Brunswick. Alex Bradley 1&2 and Samuel LeBlanc 3 assists also had 3 point efforts. Alexandre Jacob and Ryan Chaisson chipped in with goals and single assists went to Shane Dallaire, Jarrett Crossman and Michael Poirer. Newfoundland player of the game Ben Cleary scored their only tally of the contest with helpers going to Brad Mitchelmore and Brett Vokey. Vincent Charest recorded the win and Cody Edwards took the loss. As mentioned these two teams will square off in Sundays gold medal game at 1 pm local time.

The day wrapped up with the Awards Banquet and 5 of the 7 winners will be featured in tomorrows championship game. Marcus Cuomo of the St. Johns Privateers was selected as the Telus Tournament MVP. Marcus has been the driving force behind Newfoundlands offense and has played a ton of minutes. The Privateers also boast the tournaments Top Goalie in Matthew Jenkins as well as the ESSO Academic Scholarship Award winner in Justin Walsh. New Brunswick's Moncton Flyers claim the tournaments Top Defenceman and Most Sportsmanlike Player. Luc Eagle has had a strong tournament on the blue line and Lindon Beckwith has been arguably the Flyers best player. Kyle Tibbo (host) led the tournament in scoring and John Mullaly (NS) was selected as Top Forward.

Again the gold medal game between St. Johns Privateers and the Moncton Flyers goes at 1 PM local time (12:30 Atlantic) and can be seen live at www.bellaliant.net , just find the Major Midget Atlantics banner at the top of the page.

No comments:

Post a Comment