For many local kids,
the highlight of their hockey careers is to play in the Mitchell Peewee Hockey
tournament, which is the second longest running Peewee tournament in the
province, and for a very select few teams, they achieve the ultimate goal of
bringing home a coveted Meteors medal in front of their hometown crowd.
The 2019 New Orleans Pizza Peewee AE’s displayed an unparalleled sense of dedication, sportsmanship and teamwork this past weekend, and with having only a ten skater roster due to an injury earlier this season, the Meteors battled hard throughout five grueling games, to proudly capture the silver medal in the AE division of the 64th running of the annual tournament.
The meteors opened up their round robin action against the Huron Bruce Blizzard on Friday afternoon, where Mitchell was quick to move the puck around with solid passing and get their shots on net. Logan Verberne was the first one to get a point up on the board, and the team rallied behind him to maintain their lead into the second, where Verberne added a second before Huron Bruce could answer back. The Meteors never gave up, as Payton Wood scored on a well positioned shot from a rebound to give them a comfortable two goal lead. Penalties in the third caused the team to fight hard to maintain their lead, as Huron Bruce added a second goal before Max Hannon netted one more to regain their two goal lead. Not to be outdone, Huron Bruce brought the score to within one goal with 3 minutes left in third, before Verberne netted his third of the game in the last minute of play, to secure the Meteors first win of the tournament with a score of 5-3.
Later Friday evening, the Meteors would face off for their first match-up against the Ilderton Jets, and come away with their second win of the tournament with a score of 4-1. Scoring in the win was Wade Campbell, followed by Max Hannon, with the help of Elijah Bender who set Hannon up for the goal. Charlie Wolfe carried one in on a stolen puck for a shorthanded goal in the second, while Cohen Ahrens netted an empty netter assurance point in the third.
Saturday saw an intense nail biter, as the Meteors narrowly edged out the Listowel Cyclones in a 2-1 thriller. Outstanding goal-tending on both ends of the rink had the Meteors searching for their first goal until into the second period, where Max Hannon was finally able to sneak one past an outstanding Listowel net minder. The Meteors were able to maintain their slim one goal lead into the third, when the Cyclones tied it up three and a half minutes in. Penalties in the third kept both teams working hard to hold off the other, and searching to find the game winner, which would come with only ten seconds left in the game, when Charlie Wolfe would fire a beauty wrist shot from the hash mark to end the round robin action with three straight victories for the Meteors.
In the Semi-Finals, the Meteors would meet up with the fourth place Huron Bruce team for the second time in the tournament. Cohen Ahrens’ persistence found nothing but net in his first of three for the Meteors, assisted by Wade Campbell. The Meteors were on fire as they relentlessly picked up loose pucks, and were passing tape to tape to their teammates. Logan Verberne deaked his way to a goal, while Jonah Gibbings added a wrap around point, assisted by Charlie Wolfe, followed by Ryan Hubbard netting a solo shot, to punch the Meteors ticket to the final, in a 6 nothing shut-out for goaltender Keagan Meinen.
In front of packed hometown crowd, the Mitchell AE’s would seek out the gold medal Sunday afternoon, looking to go 5-0, facing off once again against the Ilderton Jets. Jonah Gibbings notched an unassisted goal in the first that would remain the lone point on the board until the third, where the Jets found their fuel and added three, as the Meteors were grasping at trying to gain back their lead. A late game unassisted goal by Colby Ryan would be the final Meteor point, as the Jets added an empty net assurance goal with 2.2 to go, to send the Meteors home with silver medals in the 4-2 loss.
Honourable mention goes to Charlie Wolfe for receiving the Tournament MVP award, which was presented by Wayne Higgins, son of the original organizer of the tournament.
A fantastic weekend of hockey was had around the community as the Organizers of the tournament did an outstanding job of making sure everything ran smoothly. A special thank you to ALL the volunteers, and most notably to all the Peewee players who could be spotted proudly sporting their Meteors sweatshirts, as they came to the arena to volunteer their time to help clear plates, run the scoreboard alongside their parents, and to cheer on their friends, classmates and neighbours. Mitchell should be proud of the future leaders of tomorrow. Way to go Meteors!