Over the 2012 holiday season the Southwest Bullet’s Atom Shamrock hockey team, sponsored by Gary Graham Transport participated in the Silver Stick Regional Tournament in Alvinston. The team faced a doubleheader on Thursday December 27th. The first game was early in the morning when they faced off against the Lucan Irish. Southwest seemed to be skating slower than the Irish and going into the third they were down 2-0.
Third period action saw Southwest pick up the pace and fight for the puck but they still came up short. Final score was 4-2 for Lucan. Goal scorers for Southwest were Cooper Aubertin and Charlie Pierce. Taking credit for the assists were Elijah Barnes, Dylan Gould and Nolan Morehouse. Ethan Peixoto stood strong and confident between the pipes.
Later that afternoon the team played against the Port
Stanley Sailors. Missing a couple of
players down with the flu Southwest knew it was going to be a battle. At the 2 minute mark in the first Joel
Kleinjan, playing forward for this game, skated hard to the net and shot the
puck off of a rebound into the open Port Stanley net. Braxton Haggith and Barnes were the
helpers. Port Stanley tied it up to
close the period. Second period action saw
the Sailors score 2 more times and Southwest’s
Jacob Kelly retaliated by notching one past the Sailors goalie with
Pierce and Morehouse as helpers. The
third saw a much more aggressive game and scuffles in front of the nets saw
punches being thrown. Southwest
continued to compete hard and kept their focus on shutting down the Port Stanley
players. In spite of a final score of
5-2 for the Sailors Tyson Hesketh provided solid goaltending and our
back checking and defensive zone play was much improved.
On the 28th the team was back in Alvinston to
play the East Lambton Eagles. It was a
hard fought battle to the bitter end. Going into the third period Southwest was
in the lead 2-0 with Cassie Whiteye and Pierce being the goal scorers. Credited for the assists were Haggith, Whiteye
and Kelly. East Lambton got on the
scoreboard early in the third.
Southwest’s Barnes retaliated minutes later with some help from Shane DePelsmaeker. The
tide seemed to turn after that when East Lambton managed to notch 2 goals past
netminder Hesketh to tie the game up.
The game went to the first overtime period with 4 skaters on the ice and
neither team was able to get one past the goaltenders. 2nd overtime period saw
3 on 3 and East Lambton capitalized on a turnover to take home the win.
Not the outcome they wanted but the team put forth great
effort, teamwork and exciting hockey.