Bears Lose NOSSA Final in Double OT

Tyler Hummel (far left) battles for a puck in the Lancers zone during the first overtime period. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The Lasalle Lancers were expecting to cruise to an easy victory in the NOSSA final after dominating in their first three games at NOSSA. Boy, were they wrong.

Cory Jerome scored at 3:52 of the second overtime period to break a scoreless tie and give the Lasalle Lancers a 1-0 OT win as the Sudbury school takes home the NOSSA AAA hockey championship.

Just like many goals in overtime, this one involved a funny bounce. Former Skyhawk Chris Pontes fired a shot from the point that bounced off the glass and right out in front to Cory Jerome who then fired home the game winner.

“The shot came in and I expected it to go off into the corner and it bounced right in front of the net and there’s a guy there and he bombed her in the open net, it was really heartbreaking,” said James Demarco who kept his Bears club in the game especially in the first half of the game when the Lancers were putting on the pressure.

The high scoring Lancers accustomed to dominating their competition were glad that the game finally ended.

“We knew it was going to be tough but not this tough, we are usually a team that scores but the goalie played good for North Bay today,” said the Lancers OT hero Cory Jerome.

“It was the greatest feeling ever, we thought we were going to take this one home easy but it makes it all that much better winning it in overtime and putting in that goal in was great too.”

Despite the loss the Bears are leaving the NOSSA final with their heads high.

“It was the most exciting game for the fans too, it’s really sweet to be just this close to these guys because they are an awesome team and everyone played pretty good today,” said Tyler Hummel who’s among a number of Bears expected to return next fall.

“Our guys just kept working hard and working hard and sometimes you get a bounce and sometimes you don’t it was a funny one of the glass and it came out a little bit weird but what do you do we are so proud of our guys they battled every step of the way,” said Bears head coach John Wilson who didn’t even know until around 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon that his team was playing in the NOSSA final.