Firefighter Peewees cap outstanding season
Pat Payton, Sports editor With sirens blaring, a St. Marys fire truck was out late Saturday afternoon—carrying a team and its coaches around town. A long line of honking cars followed.
It could only mean one thing in the Stonetown: celebrating a provincial sports championship. The first team this year to earn that honourable distinction is the 2007-08 St. Marys Firefighter Peewees.
Sparked by winger Jared Zufelt’s three goals, Firefighters skated to a 5-1 win over the Lindsay Muskies in front of an estimated 550 fans at the Pyramid Recreation Centre. The win gave St. Marys the six-point OMHA ‘BB’ final seven points to one.
The previous day, Firefighters took a commanding 5-1 points lead in the series with a solid 3-0 victory over the visiting Muskies. With the win, the Rock needed only a tie (and single point) on Saturday to claim the Ontario title.
But, from all appearances, Firefighters were determined to finish their year with a victory—and a decisive one at that.
St. Marys 5 Lindsay 1
For all intents and purposes, Saturday’s game may have been over in the
first three minutes. And like they’ve done all season, it was the Mike
Siddall line that did the damage.
Zufelt—who turned in a solid two-way effort—opened the scoring at 2:16 of
the first period. Linemate Tyson Baker and defenceman Kurtis O’Keefe
assisted.
Before their shift was over, the Siddall line struck again. Just 25 seconds
later, Zufelt made it 2-0 from Baker and Siddall.
Baker made it 3-0 at 3:14 of the second period, jumping all over the rebound
of a Braydon Blight point shot.
Midway through the period, defenceman Blight gave his team a four-goal
cushion when his low shot found its way through traffic. Derek Van De
Walle’s face-off win led directly to the goal.
Muskies finally hit the scoresheet with 44 seconds remaining in the period,
converting a powerplay opportunity. After goalie Kent Taylor made the first
stop, Matthew Flynn flipped in the rebound.
In the final 15 minutes, Firefighters played conservatively—protecting their
three-goal advantage.
But Zufelt, who was also a strong penalty-killer all day, took time out to
complete his hat trick on a powerplay at 4:15. Braydon Blight drew the lone
assist—his third point of the game.
At the final buzzer, goaltender Taylor was tackled by swarming teammates,
and the celebration was on.
The Siddall line finished with seven points on Saturday. The high-scoring
trio surpassed the 300-point mark for the season in the provincial final.
Caps outstanding season
Firefighters’ two weekend victories capped an outstanding season for 2007-08
team. Jamie Baker’s squad lost just two games all season—both by a single
goal—and tied another in the OMHA final.
In 17 OMHA games, the St. Marys Peewees allowed just 16 goals against in
their five-series playoff march.
“I’m very proud of what you’ve done,” coach Baker told his players in the
dressing room following Saturday’s game.
Firefighters went undefeated in Shamrock League play, and won the Regional
Silver Stick tournament as well.
During an interview, Baker described the Peewee Rock as a “very special
team” and one of the best he’s ever coached.
“I think this final series came down to the fact that we wanted to pay the
price,” he explained. “We backchecked and worked hard, and we really limited
Lindsay’s chances to score.
“That’s the way we’ve played all year. The whole team works hard
defensively. If you look at our goals-against (average), we only gave up one
goal a game, which is phenomenal.
“In this series, in four games, we only gave up four goals. You aren’t going
to lose a lot of games if you’re only giving up a goal a game.”
Assistant coach Bill Zufelt said Firefighters were a well-disciplined team
which worked hard.
“It’s the way they play the game,” he replied when asked why the team was
successful. “They practiced hard and skated hard, and they all backcheck.
They play a full game.
“Last year, six of them had a taste of it, and this year they wanted to win
it all,” Zufelt added.
St. Marys 3 Lindsay 0
In Game 3 on Good Friday, an estimated 600 fans watched Firefighters play a
sound defensive game—limiting Lindsay to just a handful of scoring chances.
St. Marys, meanwhile, scored a goal in each period, and netminder Kent
Taylor recorded the shutout.
Jamie Baker pointed out that the Rock coaching staff stressed a couple of
points going into Friday’s game.
“Their goalie (Adam Harris), although he’s small, is pretty good at stopping
that first shot,” coach Baker said. “We wanted to make sure that the first
shot was low to generate a few rebounds. We wanted to crash the net and get
some goals off rebounds.”
Baker said team defence, especially strong backchecking, was another key
component in Friday’s win.
“There are certain kids who get more points than others, but all our kids
back-check and work hard. Maybe not everyone notices that, but the coaching
staff sure does.
“It really frustrates the other team when they don’t have those
opportunities to score. Team defence . . . as soon as we lose that puck,
it’s all five guys on the ice getting back and working hard on defence,” the
coach added.
Both sides had a couple of early chances, before Jared Zufelt opened the
scoring on a powerplay at 7:13 of the first period. Zufelt jammed the puck
under goaltender Harris from a scramble at the side of the net. Linemates
Tyson Baker and Mike Siddall assisted.
Kevin Armstrong scored the ‘goal of the game’ at 8:48 of the middle frame.
After taking a lead pass from defenceman Brett Stacey, the winger cut around
both Lindsay defencemen and then lifted a shot over Harris.
The dangerous Siddall line—which gave the Muskies fits all day—tacked on
another insurance goal at 8:29 of the third. Siddall connected with a low
shot after a quick spin-around move in the slot. Zufelt and Baker drew
assists.