FALL RIVER: Five players from the Fall River area and one staff member have earned the crown as Cleve’s Source for Sports East Coast ice Jam champions for the Under-16 division.
The Basin Armada nipped rivals Kings Hockey Club, who has players from Fall River and East Hants on their roster, in the championship final on Sunday afternoon to taste gold.
Earning that bite into their gold medals were Nate Boudreau; Alex Damczyk, goalie Payson Stewart; Trent Peveril; and Liam Conlon.
Daniel MacKenzie is the equipment manager/assistant manager for the Armada.
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In the final, it was Noah Maccallum-Stokes scoring the game winner in overtime on a pass by Windsor Junction’s Conlon.
Chris Brill on the power-play had the other tally for the Armada.
Espen Simensen and Samuel Cowan picked up assists on Brill’s goal to tie the game at 1-1.
Dylen Probert had the Kings goal to open the game scoring.
Armada goalie Dylan Benautio picked up the goaltending win, while it was Nate Beaton who suffered the loss in goal. Both goalies made game-saving stops that allowed the game to be as close as it was.
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In the semi-final, Basin Armada tripped up the Thunder 3-2 on a game winner from Liam Conlon at 10:22 of the third period.
Jaxson Prior and Nathan Turple had the other goals for the Bedford-based squad.
Conlon, Sam Cowan, Damczyk, Prior, Henrik Gerard, and Carson MacDonald picked up the assists for the Armada.
Payson Stewart earned the win in net coming up with big saves to give his team the shot to win and advance to the final.
The Kings punched their ticket to the final with a 3-2 win over the undefeated Moncton Thunderbirds.
Joel Verge; Theo Stapleton; and Braden Martin with the winner had the goals.
Chace Munden; Jackson Orchard, who setup Martin’s winner; Nic MacIntyre; and Josh Hollett had assists.
Nolan McLauchlan had the win in net giving his team the final berth.
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During regular season play the Armada are in second place and the Kings are in fifth, so making it to the final showed great improvement for the Kings.
It truly showed how close the league is and any team winning on any given day no matter the opponent is possible and created exciting game atmosphere.
In other games for the Armada defeated the Western Rebels in the quarter-final 7-1; edged the Rebels in their final round-robin game on a Conlon game winner 2-1; blanked the NL Osprey 15-0.
The Armada started the tournament with a 4-2 loss to the Wildcats.
Basin’s Jaxson Prior was a first team all-star forward while Payson Stewart was named first team all-star goalie.
Nic MacIntyre from the Kings was named to the first all star squad, while defenceman Donovan Jay was named to the second all star team.
