The Quesnel Thunder midget hockey team battled to a 2-1 win over Terrace Sunday morning to win an eight-team tournament they hosted at Twin Arenas.
“They’re a good team,” Thunder coach Peter Andrews said of the Terrace squad.
“But all of our players were committed to play their hearts out.”
The championship game was a back and forth affair, with neither team being able to gain the momentum for any extended period of time.
Ultimately, the game was decided by mistakes and the skill to capitalize on those opportunities and without question, the hero of the championship game was Luke Fox.
Fox, 17, scored both goals for the Thunder.
His first goal came early in the first period on a mistake by a Terrace defender who coughed up the puck in the high slot trying to avoid the strong forechecking pressure by the Thunder who had a player in the penalty box.
The puck found Fox’s stick and although he was surprised to see it there, the Grade 12 student at Correlieu senior school made no mistake.
He took a few steps and roofed the puck stick-side on the Terrace netminder.
“I saw the goalie drop down a bit so I just raised it over his shoulder,” Fox said of his first goal.
The Thunder lost a bit of their focus early in the second period and took three penalties in a row to offer Terrace an opportunity to get back in the game.
Fortunately, the Thunder killed all three penalties without consequence.
“We did get into penalty trouble, but our penalty killing was very strong,” Andrews said.
Once the string of penalties was over, Fox out-skated a Terrace player to a loose puck along the left boards in the neutral zone, cut towards the centre of the ice and then fought off a check as he cut back to his left in front of the goalie to once again go top shelf stick-side on the Terrace netminder.
“I knew I had beat him blocker-side before, so I went there again,” Fox said.
“Every game we had a few different guys step up with exceptional games and that happened today with Luke Fox,” Andrews said.
“I never thought I would be kind of the hero of the game,” Fox said earnestly.
The game remained 2-0 until the dying minutes of the third period when Terrace called a time out and pulled their goalie for the extra attacker in the hopes of breaking the goose egg.
The plan worked as Curtis Hull jammed a loose puck into the Thunder net with just 58 seconds left on the clock to draw Terrace within one.
The Thunder held on for the last minute and gloves went sailing as the final buzzer sounded.
The Thunder midget team made it to the tournament championship on a 5-2 win against Prince George in the semi-finals, and a perfect 3-0 record in round-robin play.
The Thunder started the tournament off with a 9-3 win against Burns Lake and followed that with a 4-2 win against Fort. St. John, a win that was not certain until very late in the game.
Each team scored a single goal in the first period and the second period, to enter the final frame knotted at two.
“I told the boys to get another level of energy and they did,” Andrews said.
The Thunder did pick up the pace, forcing the Fort St. John players to take four penalties in the period, a perfect scenario for the Thunder.
Rick Mack put the Thunder ahead for good during a two-man advantage, just beyond the 12-minute mark of the third period, when he found the puck sitting on the goal line behind the Fort St. John netminder for the easy tap in.
Brydan Heppner sealed the win for the Thunder with his second goal of the game.
Standing in the slot, Heppner called for a pass from Josh Mack who had the puck at the side of the net.
Mack made a nice pass and Heppner rifled his shot glove-side into the back of the Fort St. John net.
“It’s where I like to shoot,” Heppner, who was named game MVP, said of his decision to fire the puck glove-side.
“I’m proud of how they responded in the third period,” Andrews said.
The Thunder then edged Terrace 3-2 to set up their playoff run.
The Quesnel Thunder bantam hockey team also saw action last weekend, with two games in Williams Lake on Saturday and another two games in Prince George on Sunday.
The tier-three bantam team finished the weekend with two wins and two losses.
In Williams Lake, the Thunder bested the tier-two Timberwolves 5-2 in the morning and then saw the Timberwolves return the favour with a 5-2 win of their own later in the day.
Likewise in Prince George, the Thunder won their first game 6-1, but saw the tier-two Prince George team come back in the afternoon with a 5-3 win.
