The Gloucester
Rangers Minor Peewee A team added the Ontario Hockey East
championship to their regular season title on the weekend,
giving them two banners to hang from the Earl Armstrong
Arena rafters.
The Rangers
went into the playoffs as the number one seed after finishing
the regular season in first place with a 19-16-5 record,
seven points ahead ot the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven.
The
road to the league championship was not an easy one for
the Rangers. After the eighth seed Kanata Blazers pushed
them to a fourth and deciding game in the opening round
of the playoffs, they dropped the opening game of the semi-finals
to the Nepean Raiders. They then bounced back to win the
next three games by identical 2-1 scores to win the first
to five point series six points to two.
With momentum
on their side the Rangers downed the Silver Seven 4-2 in
the first game of the final and then payed them to a 0-0
tie in Game 2 before the start of the March Break. When
they returned to the ice on March 19, the two teams didn`t
skip a beat as they battled to another draw, evening the
first to seven point series at four points apiece.
The crucial
fourth game was heading to another deadlock when Sebastien
Labreche scored on the power play at the 8:38 mark of the
third period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Relying on
their defence and excellent goaltending by the Tristan Hodgson
they were able to hold on for the win to take a 6-4 lead
in the series.
The Rangers
went into Game 5 needing just a tie to clinch the final
and the championship banner. The game turned out to be another
nailbiting defensive affair with both teams getting their
fair share of chances.
Noah Strickey's
first goal of the playoffs at the 4:46 mark of the first
period turned out to be the game winner as the Rangers managed
to keep the Silver Seven off the scoreboard the rest of
the way. Garrett Maronese provided the icing on the cake
with an empty net goal in the third and Zoe Cliche picked
up her first shutout of the playoffs and fifth of the season.
In 13
playoff games, the goaltending tandem of Cliche and Hodgson
allowed just 17 goals for a 1.31 goals against average.
Offensively,
the team relied on a balanced attack with goals from 13
different players. Colby Hunter and Vincent Dubé
led the way with four goals each and Nick Gilroy, Kalai
Uuttuvak, Xavier Pilon-Faubert and Daniel MacDowell had
three goals apiece.
The Minor
Peewee team joined the Rangers Major Atom AA squad as the
only two Gloucester Ranger teams to win a post season banner
this year. The Major Midget AA team lost in the final to
the Ottawa Sting and the Minor Midget AA squad lost to the
Upper Ottawa Valley Aces.
Beside
the regular season and league champiosnhips, the Minor Peewee
team also won the Bell Capital Cup, the Capital Gold Rush
Tournament and the Toronto Area Tournament. They also finished
second in the Guelph Power Play Tournament.
(This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of
our local business partners.)
TAPROOM 260 presents Crooked Creek live from 8-11 p.m. at 260 Centrum Blvd. For more information visit 
MATT LULOFF W/ EDISON RUPERT performing at the Stray Dog Brewing Company, 501 Lacolle Way in the Taylor Creek Business Park. To register your team visit 
OTTAWA CARLETON MALE CHOIR in concert at the Navan-Vars United Church 1129 Smith Rd. in Navan at 2:30 p.m. Tickets $20 at the door.
THE ORLÉANS BREWING CO. presents Oyster Wednesdays every Wednesday. The Orléans Brewing Co. is located at 4380 Innes Rd. near McDonalds.
BLACKBURN HAMLET COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The entire community is invited…rain or shine! Please keep visiting blackburn.ca for more up-to-date information as it becomes available.
