Bearcats come out with bronze

Gulls continue their dominant season with title, earn way to Atlantics

TRURO - In a finish that had more drama than head coach Greg Mullen would have preferred, the Truro Major U-15 Bearcats claimed the bronze medal at the Nova Scotia Major U-15 Provincial Championships.

Hosting the tournament at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre (RECC), the Bearcats let a 4-1 third-period lead over the stubborn Cape Breton Joneljim Cougars slip away from them before Ethan Fraser’s overtime goal earned them a 5-4 decision.

The veteran coach Mullen said it was a “rollercoaster of emotions.”

“Obviously, being up 4-1 and then seeing that evaporate, but we expected it (the push-back) out of those guys … there is no quit in them at all,” he said of the Cape Breton team. “The last game of the regular season they beat us 3-2 and we were up 2-1 with under a minute to go; they tied it late and beat us in overtime. And, obviously, they beat us yesterday as well in the last round-robin game, so they’re a really good, competitive team.

“So an exciting finish; we would have hoped it wouldn’t have been that exciting, given we had a 4-1 lead, but all good in the end.”

The Bearcats went 3-1 in the round-robin which, along with the loss to the Cougars, included wins over the Bedford Bandits (6-2), the Novas (3-2), and the Gulls by the score of 6-4, which was only the second loss of the year suffered by the team from the Tantallon area. The Gulls would get their revenge on the Bearcats in the cross-over semi-final and go on to win the provincial banner with a 5-1 win over the New Scotland Storm from Cole

Harbour.

Mullen mentioned the victory over the Gulls as part of what was a very successful season for the Bearcats.

“It was a huge win for us against the Gulls on Friday morning and then to cap it off today with a bronze medal; we were disappointed we weren’t playing for gold but, in the grand scheme of it, in terms of where we started the season and where we finished it – playing in the final of the Ice Jam and winning bronze here today at the provincials – a very good season for us overall … no question,” he said.

He talked about those players who finished their U-15 careers with the bronze medal game.

“The group of returning second-year players in particular – Ethan Wolfe, Ryan Vohra, Elliott Mullen and Ethan Fraser who played a number of games with us as an AP last year - and

then some of our other secondyear players, really stepped up as well,” Mullen said. “So it was, overall, a very good showing for them to cap off their U-15 career with a bronze medal today.”

Elliott, who finished the tournament with 11 points on seven goals and four assists, was named the event’s top forward.

“We would have liked to be playing at 1 p.m. today (gold medal game) but we have to be happy with the bronze,” Elliott said. “It was a good weekend for us. I had a good weekend and so did a lot of the other boys, so it was good to come out with third place.”

He also paid tribute to the hard-working Cougars.

“It was a good game,” Elliott said. “They’re a good team over there, tough and hard to battle against, but we came out with the win in the end so it was a good game for us.”

Chace Munden scored twice for the Bearcats in the win and added an assist. Hayden Doiron scored once and assisted on two goals while Malky Murphy scored Truro’s other goal and Tyler Sullivan recorded two assists. Elliott added an assist and Sam Berthiaume recorded the win in goal for the Bearcats making 30 saves.

GULLS HEADED TO THE ATLANTICS

Gulls head coach Bob Barrett said they “executed their game plan well” in taking down the Storm who had posted a perfect record at the provincials up until the gold medal game. The Gulls scored once in the first and second period before the Storm would answer back early in the third, but then three straight Gulls goals put the game out of reach for their HRM rivals.

“Our big guys showed up,”

Barrett said, speaking about players such as playoff games’ most valuable player Jacob Hartlin, tournament top defenceman Logan Foote and captain Tristan Turner.

“We played as a team, pushed hard, shot when we had chances and finished our checks,” Turner said as far as a few of the keys to victory for his team. “We played hard as a team right to the end … it was awesome.”

Now the Gulls will represent Nova Scotia at the Atlantics which takes place in O’leary, P.E.I. March 30 to April 2.

“We need to bring everything we did here in this game over to the Atlantics,” Turner said. “No matter who we play, we’ll be doing our best.”

EVENT ORGANIZATION

Mullen said they heard nothing but compliments from the other teams and their supporters about the organization of the tournament.

“Exceptional comments about the quality of what the host committee has done,” he said. “From the organization to the attention to detail, things like that.

“Last year at the (Colchester Legion) Stadium was very good, we loved every minute of hosting it there, but this year we took it up a notch being here at the RECC … a newer facility. But without Ainsley, Margot Vohra and Shannon Wolfe as the three co-chairs, and then all the parent volunteers underneath them, you could never pull off a tournament like this, so a big shout out to them.”

Barrett was one of those passing along compliments.

"It was run perfectly,” he said. “Hats off to the organization that put this together; there is a lot to be said for putting a tournament like this together and they obviously put a lot of hard work in, and it showed.”