The Similkameen News Leader
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MAC LIND PEE WEES FINISH TOURNEY 2-2
Mac Lind Logging held their home tournament March 17th-19th. With seven out of town teams entered Princeton got to play a variety of teams. The coaches were hoping the team would do well in the tournament to end their season on a positive note.
Their first match up was against Kamloops. Nathan Garton scored first on a pass from Clayton Obee, but before the period was over Kamloops scored twice to give them the lead. The team held their own with both sides playing very strong defensively. In the end it was Kamloops 5 Princeton 1. Colby Williams won Defensive player of the game while Clayton won Offensive player of the game. Their next match up was against Chilliwack.
The first period went scoreless, but 7 minutes in saw Taylor Esselink take a shot on net with Colby Williams banging home the puck for the first goal of the game. Chilliwack then scored twice before Taylor Esselink scored on a nice pass from Justin Milligan. Drayden Larson scored Princeton's third goal assisted by Clayton Obee, but before the period ended Chilliwack had a two-goal lead.
Princeton had a lot of pressure on their opponents but just could not find the back of the net. They hit several posts and missed shots but they eventually fell 7 to 3. Offensive player went to Taylor and Defensive player was Jordan.
After losing two straight the players were really pumped for their next game wanting to prove that they could be the team to be reckoned with. And dominate the game they did scoring a total of 11 goals to Surrey's 3! It was a great effort by the whole team. Justin won Offensive player and Jessie won Defensive player of the game.
With the round robin complete Princeton would once again play Surrey to retain fifth spot in the tournament. This was to be a lot different game than the last Surrey was not about to hand Princeton the game. With end-to-end action both goalies put on a clinic keeping the other team at bay. But Princeton would not be denied Clayton Obee score 3 minutes into the first and then Justin Milligan gave Princeton a two-goal lead going into the second.
Taylor Esselink then gave Princeton a three goal lead before Surrey scored their first of the game. Two minutes into the third Surrey scored their second of the game. Justin scored his second of the game with 16 minutes remaining.
Neither team controlled the game and with 10 minutes remaining Surrey scored again to get to within one. From here on in it was a goalies game with each goalie facing numerous shots, but Princeton was victorious winning 4 to 3. For this game Offensive player of the game was Drayden and Defensive player went to Kraig.
Points for the weekend were Justin 6 goals 1 assist; Taylor 4 goals 5 assists, Colby 3 goals 4 assists, Drayden 3 goals 3 assists, Nathan, Kraig, Clayton, and Brady each had a goal and some assists. Josh and Jordan each had an assist.
The coaches are proud of the season the team has had. Jessie Murray and Ryan Hearty played excellent in net for us. Offensively Justin, Taylor, Colby, Brady, Clayton, Keaton, Jonas, Ian, and Nathan played excellent.
While defensively Kraig, Josh, and Jordan played outstanding. We hope you had fun this season, have a great summer and see you in the fall. A special thanks to Suzy Johnson who organized the tournament which was a great success.
