Team NOHA didn’t advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals despite finishing the preliminary round with an undefeated 1-0-3 record after defeating the Toronto Titans 3-1 on Friday afternoon.
Trappers forward Cole Craft had a goal and Jake McGuire made 22 saves to earn Player of the Game recognition as Team NOHA went home winners.
“We only had two practices so we didn’t get to work on too much but it’s nice to see the kids do so well, especially against two top teams like Vaughan and Whitby,” said Team NOHA head coach Kevin Panco on the OHL Cup website.
“If we had more time to work on things I can only imagine how good of a team we’d be.”
Team NOHA took the shooting column 28-23, going 2-for-8 on the power play while holding the Titans to an 0-for-6 mark on the man advantage.
“Our guys showed a lot of heart here,” Panco added. “I had four forward lines going and our defence battled hard the whole tournament. I’m really proud of how we’ve done.”
Team NOHA was led in scoring by Trappers forward Cole Craft (3-2–5) and Joel Mazur (2-3–5) who each recorded five points over four games.
Craft, Payton Vescio, Joel Rainville, Matt Hardwick, Kobe Seguin, Ryan Mills and Jacob Peterson-Galema will all return to the Trappers now as they re-focus in hopes of winning a Great North Midget League title.
The Trappers are up two games to one in the best-of-fiver GNML final series against the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves.
The North Bay squad can win the league title with a win on Tuesday night in Sudbury.
