The Northern Ontario Moose opened their summer hockey season in grand fashion by winning the Toronto Spring Showdown Championship and claiming a long coveted Gold Medal in the midget division this past weekend in Scarborough.
Behind Jake Steringa’s stellar goaltending and the solid defensive core of Kalem Boucher, Brad Hubley Jr., Caleb Ranger, Carter Rickertsen, Cole Goddard and Braedan Gobbo, the Moose built momentum over their three Preliminary Round games in working their way a pair of ties and a 2-1 win.
Goal scorers for the three games were Duff Bigelow, Josh Boucher, Shkaabewis Tabobodung, Ryan Yeo and Ryan Fournier with singles while Jakob Fahey had a pair.
In the semi-final, the Moose faced the Toronto Hurricanes in a back and forth battle. With a 2-1 Moose lead after two periods on goals by Jakob Fahey and Josh Boucher, the Hurricanes tied the game early in the third before taking the lead with less than 4 minutes remaining. The collective effort of the refocused Moose led to Jakob Fahey’s second goal of the game to restore the tie and force overtime. In OT, Ryan Fournier earned his third assist of the game when Braedan Gobbo continued his outstanding play by hammering home a blistering slap shot to send the frenzied Moose to the Final.
The Gold Medal game saw the Moose take on the first place Owen Sound Phantoms in a fast and physical affair.
The game was deadlocked at 0-0 until the last minute of the 2nd period when Jakob Fahey notched his 5th goal of the tournament for the Moose.
Team-first play stifled the Phantoms in leading to Cole Goddard’s assist on Ryan Fournier’s goal that provided some late third period breathing room.
Unfortunately the Phantoms relentless attack quickly led to the Moose finding them themselves back on the penalty kill for the balance of the game. With the Phantoms goalie on the bench, Ryan Yeo came up with two huge blocked shots during 6-on-4 play before Shkaabewis Tabobodung chased down a loose puck and scored an empty netter to seal the Gold Medal.
Along with Jake Steringa’s shutout goaltending, forwards Currie Giesler, Zach Dwyer and Brad Geisler played big minutes along the boards with their two-way play during the Final and throughout the weekend.
The Moose roster includes Jake Steringa, Caleb Ranger, Cole Goddard, Carter Rickertsen, Kalem Boucher, Braeden Gobbo, Brad Hubley Jr., Ryan Yeo, Duff Bigelow, Zach Dwyer, Currie Giesler, Shkaabewis Tabobodung, Brad Geisler, Jakob Fahey, Josh Boucher and Ryan Fournier.
The Northern Ontario Moose will be back in action in two weeks at the May Madness tournament being held at York University.
