The Sooke peewee A team ventured north this past Saturday for a heated contest against the peewee A tier 3 Oceanside Generals. Prior to the game at the same rink the peewee team took in our Sooke Atom Development team squeezing out a victory 9-8 against the top Oceanside team. Turning to the game there were over 70 hits recorded and the boys from Sooke seem to be adjusting nicely to the physical contact with clean checking.
The opening goal by Ryan Cornbill was a fierce slapshot from the point. Strong back and forth continued throughout the first and second period with some strong rushes by Ty Didmon. Oceanside’s strong puck movement and driving to the net and quick movement to the puck netted a 4-1 victory.
Sunday saw the lads from Sooke venture to heated rival Raquet Club and also saw the return to the bench of assistant coach Kevin Berger along with Marty Knowles. The game was tight checking with Sooke neting powerplay goals to keep score tied 1-1 but Raquet Club pulled away at the end for 2 to 1 victory.
Sooke atom C2 played two exhibition games this weekend against Juan de Fuca and Saanich atom C2. Both games were hard fought with Sooke winning 6-5 against JDF and losing 5-3 against Saanich. Goals were scored by Jacob Barney, Thomas Lowerison, Josh Danielson, Noah Hamilton and Keefe Monteiro.
The Sooke Thunderbirds atom 1 boys have shown their opponents in pre-season action that they take hockey seriously. After back-to-back early games opening weekend against Lake Cowichan with one win and one loss, the team’s strong mix of new and experienced atom players has now found their stride.
Friday night’s action was a fast-paced game at Victoria Racquet Club. Although Sooke took a fair share of penalty minutes, goals by Braydon Blyth, Blake Reymerink, and Finley Arthurs ensured a strong 10-3 finish for Sooke. Coach Rick Ackinclose was also impressed by the heart shown by the team, “These boys are looking really strong, John Richardson and Dahlan Murphy really have wheels, and Matthew Lyons is always hungry for the puck.”
Saturday the team was in Esquimalt to meet up with the Victoria Ice Hawks for the first time, and continued to dominate with 4-1 win. Alex Perman, Ryder Norman and Ben Ackinclose were busy digging along the boards, ensuring the play stayed in the Victoria end of the ice, and William Couture stood out with a nice goal.
By the third game of weekend, the boys showed no signs of fading and came out strong Sunday morning in Sooke to meet the Peninsula Eagles. These worthy opponents meant lots of end-to-end action with phenomenal effort by Travis Macrea on defense. Braydon Blyth continued to blaze with fury across the ice and really made the Eagles take notice. Nick “The Wall” Haisell is always on his game in the Sooke net and had many glove saves and dives which had the crowd cheering. In the end the Eagles edged out a narrow victory.
