THAT KIND OF WEEKEND Wellesley forward Connor McLeod fends off two Tavistock defenders during second period action of the Jacks’ 4-2 loss last Saturday night.

“We had a chance to solidify second place, and now we’ll be hard pressed to get home-ice advantage (in the playoffs).”

The weekend started well enough as Wellesley opened the scoring last Saturday night against the Braves at 7:08 of the first period. The puck was rattled around the Jacks net and the Braves’ defence couldn’t keep the puck in at the blue line. Matt Sovereign got around the defenceman to start a 2-on-1 rush with Connor McLeod, who finished off a cross crease pass from Sovereign to make it 1-0.

Tavistock tied it up just over seven minutes later when Josh Wagler banged home a rebound past Jacks goaltender Jordan Bauman at 14:53 after Bauman made the initial save.

The second period was fast-paced, with only one penalty called in the entire period, but the Braves carried most of the play and used a couple of quick goals midway through the period to put the game out of reach.

Chad Woodhouse’s shot at 11:07 hit a stick or a skate in front of Bauman and redirected past him, and Nick Quehl made it 3-1 at 12:57 by converting a quick pass from behind the Jacks net.
Tavistock held a decisive 14-7 advantage in shots in the second period as well.

“I thought they outplayed us all over the ice,” said Fitzpatrick. “They kept coming and coming and coming and they just outplayed us.”

In the third the teams traded goals as Kevin Howorth made it 3-2 with a shorthanded goal at 13:25 by finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Shawn Fitzpatrick, but Tavistock restored their two-goal lead at 15:49 on the powerplay.
Bauman finished with 38 saves for the loss.

The following afternoon Wellesley travelled to Norfolk to take on the Rebels, who came into the match with only one win all season, but managed to double that total Sunday against the Jacks.
The Rebels used a three-goal outburst in the third period – all coming on the powerplay – to break the game open and skate away with a 4-2 win.

“There are no excuses,” said Fitzpatrick. “Sunday was just overconfidence, or whatever you want to call it, and it was a real disappointment.”
All weekend long the Jacks offense sputtered and failed to establish any presence in the offensive zone. They only managed 22 shots against the Braves, and the team finished 0 for 10 on the powerplay over the two games.
Fitzpatrick said the team needs to get back to the systems that made them successful earlier in the season.

“I’m not concerned about our record right now, it’s about getting that work ethic back,” he said. “We dominated for about a month and a half. The talent is there, we’ll just have to see if it comes forward.”
The Jacks hit the road this weekend with games in Ayr on Thursday night at 7:30, and a rematch in Tavistock on Friday night at 7:30. Results were unavailable before press time.
Wellesley closes out the regular season with a pair of home games on Feb. 10 and 11 against St. George and Burford. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.

SWEET VICTORY The Twin Centre Novice Rep team took first place at the International Silver Stick tournament held Jan. 21 and 22. Back row: Brent Murray (asst. coach), Jamie Hislop (head coach), Jeff Stemmler (trainer), Duane Gowing (asst. coach), Paul Schnarr (manager). Third row: Sam Erb, Curtis Bisch, Evie Adam. Second row: Jacob Thompson, Michael Hayes, Jaxson Murray, Brayden Hislop, Kyle Kraemer, Austin Stemmler, Easton Gowing. Front: Johathan Gervais. Above right, The Twin Centre team celebrates its victory in the finals. Below right, Kyle Kraemer (#93), Jaxson Murray (#14), Evie Adam (#11) make their way up ice in the championship game against the Kincardine Kinucks.

“From winning no games last year to winning it all was quite amazing and sure was exciting.”

The team is comprised of 7- and 8-year-old players from Wellesley, St. Clements, Hawkesville, as well as the surrounding area, and they opened the tournament with an 11-0 drubbing of the Detroit Devils on Jan. 21. They followed that up with a hard-fought win against the Kincardine Kinucks, in which they overcame a 2-0 deficit after the first and a 3-2 deficit after the second period to emerge 4-3 after the final buzzer.
The next day they beat the Strathroy Rockets 4-1 to advance to the semi-finals where they beat the hometown St. Clair Shores squad 7-1.
In the finals they once again faced off against the Kinucks, this time emerging with a 7-4 win for the title.

“They were passing the puck around and had a real team effort and determination to win,” Schnarr said. “It’s very tough to be an international silver stick champion, that’s quite an accomplishment.”
Jaxson Murray was named the most valuable player of the tournament, and Schnarr said their key phrase before each game was to be “extremely amazing.”

While the win was Schnarr’s first in his four years of managing the team, he said the real reward was watching how the team came together this season to play as a cohesive group. They are currently undefeated in 33 games this season, and the OMHA playoffs are already underway.

“It’s surprising as the year goes on all of a sudden they start to gel and talk to each other and have sleepovers and have really come together as a team. To me that’s the most important thing to see how these kids grow and come together as a team.”

The manager also credited the coaching staff, led by heach coach Jamie Hislop, for much of their success in helping the team develop both on and off the ice.
For now their focus is on the playoffs, a round-robin format against Delhi, Tavistock and Ayr with the top two teams facing off in a best-of-five playoff to determine the winner.

Gold: 10U team: Jadyn Brooks, Cassidi Clairmont, Emma Jewer, Shereen Knechtel, Kelsey Maresse, and Grace Payne 13U team: Grace Collins, Emily Beer, Kate Fitzpatrick, Sarah Frizzell, Jenna Schell, Gabrielle Scott, Victoria Zinger

Silver: 10U duet members Jadyn Brooks & Cassidi Clairmont

TEAM GOLDEN Jadyn Brooks, Cassidi Clairmont, Emma Jewer, Shereen Knechtel, Kelsey Maresse, and Grace Payne of the 10U team took home gold in a field of 11 teams at WLU.

Bronze: 15U team: Grace Adams, Hannah Atkins, Amy Knechtel, Brooklyn Kamphuis, Claire Stubbe, Maelin Stubbe, Kelly Thurlow and Kailey Veitch

Fourth: 14 yr duet (Amy Knechtel and Kelly Thurlow) and 16+ duet (Grace Adams and Brooklyn Kamphuis)

Sixth: 12U team: Averyl Bender, Anna Guenther, Isabelle Ly, Sydney Maresse, Avery Noll, Leeah Toner, Jessica Wormald
Ontario Winter Games qualifier, Elmira

In the 12U event, Waterloo swimmers came out on top to earn themselves the first qualification position over teams from Kitchener-Waterloo, Burlington and London.
The 15U team also finished on top and the 13U team finished second, beating out teams from Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Burlington and Guelph.
All three teams are now headed to the Ontario Winter Games in March. The event is held bi-annually and sees more than 2,200 athletes from across 25 different sports competing for their regions.

After the first intermission the Jacks came out flying, taking it to the Dukes who seemed sluggish returning to the ice after 20 minutes of play. Way would score his team-leading 21st goal of the campaign when he found the back of the net just over eight minutes into the frame.

Metzger picked up the puck just past the red line, slipping it over to Sovereign who would find Way alone on the right of Dukes’ goaltender Tanner Armstrong. Way fired a one-timer below the glove of Armstrong to give the Jacks a 2-0 lead.

St. George cut into that two-goal lead at 13:13 during a powerplay on a shot that squeezed between Wellesley goaltender Josh Heer’s stick and the post, but Tyler Eckert got that one back four minutes later from Rob Hinschberger and Jake Steenson at 17:20 to make it 3-1.

The Dukes retaliated less than two minutes later, potting their second of the night during another powerplay.

THAT'S 1 Wellesley’s Mitch Metzger beats St. George goaltender Tanner Armstrong to score the first goal of the competition at the Wellesley arena on Jan. 20. The Jacks went on to defeat the Dukes 4-2.

The third frame was a well fought period with Wellesley out-shooting St. George 13-5. The Jacks managed to score their fourth of the night off the stick of Shawn Fitzpatrick. Bobby Gray took the puck from deep in Applejack territory, passed it to Blair Witmer who then banked a pass off the boards near the blue line to Fitzpatrick, sending him streaking down the ice. Fitzpatrick used his body to shield the puck from the defenders and managed to cut the right side of the net before slipping the rubber past Armstrong.

Jacks netminder Heer stopped 23 of 25 shots for the win, while Armstrong stopped 41 of 45 for St. George.

Two days later the Jacks were up against Hagersville looking for redemption after losing the week before to the Hawks. Unfortunately the Jacks were not up to the task, losing 8-3.
“I have been giving this game a fair amount of thought over the last couple days and I am not really sure what happened,” said Fitzpatrick.

“Hagersville just beat us in all aspects of the game, what it comes down to is that they were better prepared than we were. I was shocked, because going into that first period I thought we were really ready for them and I misread my team. Full credit to Hagersville, they played very well and took it to us in all aspects of the game, powerplay, penalty killing, five on five, they beat us on all fronts.”
Fitzpatrick had to pull his all-star goalie, Heer, from the game half way through the second period after he gave up five goals.

“It is something I am not use to doing. I just don’t know what happened in net, I am not sure if I should have changed him sooner than I did but he has shown this year that he can get down a couple of goals and shut the door for the rest of the hockey game. They just scored some really nice goals on him,” said Fitzpatrick.

The coach said his goalies did not let in any weak goals during the game, adding Hagersville just outplayed the Jacks from the start of the competition.

“They made some beautiful plays out on the ice,” he said. “I am still trying to figure out what I could have done differently as the coach as it is my responsibility to get the boys ready and we were not ready for them.”
The Jacks take on Tavistock at home today (Saturday), with the puck dropping at 7:30 p.m., and then hit the road the next day to face Norfolk in an afternoon game starting a 2 p.m.

“That was the first thought that came to my mind.”

The call was to inform the 28-year-old Elmira native that he had been chosen to play in his first all-star game alongside his Capitals teammate Alexander Ovechkin and 34 others players from across the league.
As of Thursday, Wideman is ranked fifth in the NHL scoring by defenceman with 8 goals and 32 points in 45 games for the Capitals. His career high is 13 goals and 50 points, established during the 2007/2008 season when he was a member of the Boston Bruins.

ALL-STAR Elmira-native Dennis Wideman has parlayed his strong start to the NHL season into a call to the NHL All-Star game in Ottawa.

“Obviously I’m pretty excited,” said Wideman about being named to the team. “It’s a big honour and it’s a lot more exciting going for the first time.” Wideman credits his success this year to the ability of his teammates – including Ovechkin and high-scoring centre Niklas Backstrom – to put the puck in the net. Washington is averaging almost 3 goals per game this season, ninth in the league, and Wideman has earned a spot on the team’s top powerplay unit.

“We score a lot of goals, so I think since we’re scoring goals I’m going to get points.”

Wideman has managed to maintain some consistency this season despite the fact that it’s been an up-and-down year for the team as a whole. The Capitals started 7-0 – a franchise record for consecutive wins to begin a season – but slumped badly in November, and after losing six of eight towards the end of the month, management fired head coach Bruce Boudreau.

Boudreau’s replacement, Dale Hunter, appears to have righted the ship and the Capitals were seeded third in the Eastern Conference, 10 points behind the New York Rangers, after a win Wednesday.
Wideman is confident the team will continue to improve, and challenge for the top spot in the east once again.

“There was a bit of a learning curve there [with Dale Hunter], and we started putting a little pressure on ourselves which I think we struggled with,” he said.
“I think we’re getting better but there is still a lot of work to be done and a long season left.”

Under the new all-star format the teams will be chosen by a pair of team captains, Zdeno Chara of the Bruins and Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators.
As a result Wideman doesn’t know who he will be paired with yet on defence, and said it doesn’t matter too much to him – but there is one player he would have liked to have the opportunity to play with.
“I think if Nick Lidstrom was going I’d like to play with him once. That would have been pretty good,” he said.

Lidstrom was voted into the game for the 13th time in his career this season, but has elected to skip it. Wideman also said he didn’t know which skills competition events he will participate in, saying “hopefully nothing too big.”
The NHL super skills competition is set for Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.  and the game is scheduled for Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. at Scotiabank Place, the home of the Senators.

“The score wasn’t indicative of the game; we out-chanced them and they’re just a dirty hockey team.”

Hagersville took a 1-0 lead to the dressing room after the first period on a goal by Aleck Boyd at 9:48, but the Hawks exploded in the second for four unanswered goals in the first 12:32 to take a stranglehold on the match.
Fitzpatrick took particular exception with the Hawks second goal, scored at 1:25 of the second, and he said that a Hagersville player collided with Jacks goaltender Josh Heer, forcing him out of the net and leading to the goal.
Another issue for Fitzpatrick was when at the start of the third the Hawks’ Kyle Parsons and the Jacks’ Josh Herd got into a fight. Fitzpatrick alleges that the Hagersville player ripped off Herd’s helmet and started hitting him over the head with it.

“We’re lucky he didn’t have a concussion,” Fitzpatrick said.

“Their coach was screaming all sorts of obscenities at [the referee] and at our players, and nothing was done.” Following that fight the Jacks finally pushed back and tallied four unanswered goals to make the score 5-4.
Tyler Eckert scored at 1:56 from Reid Denstedt and Rob Hinschberger, Mitch Metzer got a shorthanded goal just seconds later from Brett Vickers, Matt Soveregn made it 5-3 at 4:17 from Denstedt, and Metzger scored his second of the period on the powerplay at 6:55 to make it a 5-4 hockey game.

Yet Fitzpatrick said the referees again were intimidated by the Hagersville bench, and called four straight penalties against Wellesley, allowing the Hawks to score on the powerplay at 11:29 to take a 6-4 lead.
“Once they got the sixth goal on the powerplay, we stopped getting sent to the penalty box,” said Fitzpatrick.

The Hawks tallied an unassisted goal at 19:20 to round out the scoring.

The game was an important one for both teams, as Wellesley was only one point behind the Hawks for second in the division heading into the match, and they now sit three back with 36 points following the loss.
The coach said he intends to take his transgressions up with the OHA when he returns to the area after being away on business. He said he even has photos of Herd getting hit over the head with the helmet.
“When I get back I’m going to take the pictures into the OHA office. It was so blatant.”

This past week the Jacks have been trying to push that game from their mind in preparation for their matchup against the St. George Dukes at home last night (Friday). The Dukes were only one point behind Wellesley in the standings heading into the match, but results were not available before press.

On Sunday, the Jacks will look for some retribution against the Hawks when Hagersville arrives in Wellesley for a match on Sunday afternoon. The puck drops at 3 p.m.

“I think the reason for my success this season is that I am playing on a very strong team this year,” said Hahn, who currently plays for the Eishockey-und-Rollschuh club (ERC) club which is located in Ingolstadt, Germany.
The team is currently third in the 14-team league with 66 points, just four behind the co-leaders from Berlin and Mannheim.

Hahn, 34, is a centre on the team and he credits some of his success to winger Thomas Greilinger, who is currently tied for 12th in league scoring with 12 goals and 32 points.
“He is a very good offensive player, and my line has had good chemistry,” said Hahn.

The Canadian is in his first season on the team but is no stranger to the DEL as this is his fifth season playing in the league. He suited up for the Straubing Tigers last season, but suffered an injury to his hand that saw him tear several ligaments and required pins to be put into his thumb to help it heal.

That injury held him out of the lineup for 13 games but he still managed 39 points in 39 games. Prior to last season he played for the now-defunct Frankfort Lions for three years, recording 131 points in 149 games. This season he has managed to shake off that injury and return to the high level of hockey he and his fans in Elmira are accustomed to.

Hahn joined the Kings in the 1995-96 season and played for the team for three seasons. The team was a finalist for the Sutherland Cup in his first year, and captured the Ontario title in 1997. He was named co-playoff MVP with Mike McKinnon, and also eclipsed the 100-point plateau during the regular season.

In 147 career games with the Kings, Hahn scored 64 goals and collected 110 assists, good for 15th on the team’s all-time list. He also holds the team record for most career playoff goals (35), assists (60), and points (95), and he said that winning the Cup that season was his fondest memory of his time spent with the Kings.

From Elmira, Hahn travelled to the Rochester Institute of Technology where he played for three seasons while collecting a degree in business management. From there, he played a pair of games for the Elmira Jackals of the United Hockey League, one game for the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies of the East Coast Hockey League, then four full seasons with the Amarillo Gorillas of the Central Hockey League, where he took rookie of the year honours in 2003 and the MVP title in 2007 when he scored 114 points in 67 games.

Hahn then moved overseas and began his European career playing for Rodovre in Denmark, before moving on to Germany. He also helped team Canada capture the Deutschland Cup in November of 2008 with the help of another former Sugar King, Jamie Wright.

He and wife Lacey have a 21-month-old daughter named Addison, with another due in June. Hahn said he also tries to return to Canada in the summer, and was most recently in the country this past June to visit his parents.
With 16 games left on the schedule, Hahn knows anything can happen especially after an injury derailed his season last year, and he says he doesn’t know what the future holds for him or his family once his career is done.
“I would like to play hockey for a little longer,” he said, noting he hopes to fall back on his business degree when his retirement finally comes.
“But as of right now, I have no idea what I will be doing when I am done playing.”

“We were scrambling initially but that is to be expected after a two-week break and getting away from things, but over all I was pleased with the effort the boys gave during the game,” said head coach Dean DeSilva. “The mistakes we were making were consistent with being off and trying to force things and trying to do too much rather than reacting properly to what was coming at them.”

TAKING IT TO THEM Kings forward Riley Sonnenburg finds a hole between Owen Sound Greys’ Ardis Doug (9) and Brooks Nelthrope (7) during action at the Dan Snyder Memorial Arena last Sunday. The Kings defeated the Greys 5-2.

The first frame saw both teams with good chances but neither could connect until Cambridge found themselves with an advantage when two Kings – Mitch Dunning and Brett Priestap – were sent to the box with two separate penalties seconds apart, giving Hawks defenceman Marselis Subban the chance to pot the only goal of the period by beating  goalie Nick Horrigan at 15:58.

Cambridge returned to the ice after the first intermission with a fire in its belly and caught the sleeping Elmira squad off guard when former King Brennon Pearce tallied the Hawks’ second goal of the night.

The Kings defended for the rest of the period until Will Cook broke out of his own end and found Andrew Smith deep in Hawks territory. Smith circled around the net before spotting Brad Kraus out front; his feed was quickly chipped over the glove of Cambridge netminder Lucas Machalski, finally putting the boys in green on the board.
The third period would start with the Kings down by one but that changed within the first minutes of the frame when Smith fired a shot over the right shoulder of Machalski to make it 2-2.

Cambridge responded quickly, however, potting another goal against Horrigan when Hawks forward Brock Campbell flicked the rubber bouncing against the post and into the net.

Down 3-2, the Kings went into full swing and managed to add another to their tally during a powerplay that had Lukas Baleshta scoring the tying point, with Wade Pfeffer and Michael Hasson collecting the assists.

The teams headed into overtime but neither would manage to find the back of the net, setting up a shootout.
Both Baleshta and Smith  missed the target, leaving Riley Sonnenburg to score the only goal of the shootout, as Horrigan managed to shut down the Hawks. The Kings would finish the victors of a hard fought battle.

The next afternoon the Kings played host to the Owen Sound Greys at the Dan Snyder Memorial Arena.
The homeboys got off to a great start, scoring two goals in the first minute of play.

Cash Seraphim got things rolling 30 seconds into the contest, beating Greys netminder Nicholas Caldwell, with Wade Pfeffer and Dunning collecting assists.
Moments later the Kings were once again on the scoreboard when Kraus potted one at 0:58.

The Greys were not to be counted out, getting one back before the end of the period when forward Brad Pitt stole the puck at centre ice and fired a wrist shot above the stick of Elmira goaltender Justis Husak to keep the Greys within one going into the first intermission.

The second frame saw the Kings take unnecessary penalties, with the team clocking 18 minutes in the box.

“We got a little selfish and were trying to be fancy and we got a little undisciplined, especially in the second period where we were taking silly penalties. We talked to the guys during the break and said the only thing you can control is your emotions: you can’t control the calls or what is going on with the other team, but you can control your emotions and your work ethic and that is how you win games,” said DeSilva.

Even though they were keeping the penalty box bench warm, the Kings still managed to score their third of the match when Sonnenburg scored his first of two on the night.
Grey defenceman Brooks Nelthorpe made it close again by beating Husak during a mix up in front of the Kings’ net at 16:05, the second and final goal of Owen Sounds’ night.
“[Husak] would love to have those two goals back, he should have saved both goals on him but he did what he had to do to give us the win,” said DeSilva.
The third period would see the Kings gain control of the game scoring twice off the sticks of Cook and Sonnenburg.

The Kings out-shot the Greys 62-18 for the win.

“We did better in the third period and still have to find our footing, but that happens in games after a long break; we will deal with it and move on from there,” said DeSilva.
The Kings are back in action today (Saturday) against Brantford and will be on home ice on Sunday against Listowel Cyclones.

“The boys played exceptionally well over the weekend, and Friday night’s game was easily the best the boys have performed all season,” said Wellesley head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick. “They played a complete 60 minutes of hockey both offensively and defensively, and you can’t ask for more than that.”
Vickers opened the scoring against the Bulldogs at the seven-minute mark of the contest courtesy of an assist from Way. It would be the only goal scored in a hard-fought first-period battle.

After the second intermission the Jacks came out flying, taking it to the Rebels who seemed sluggish returning to the ice after 20 minutes of play. Kevin Horworth found the back of the net just 1:23 into the frame. Forward Blair Witmer stole the rubber from a Bulldog defenceman, slipping it over to Shawn Fitzpatrick who would find Horworth alone on the right of Bulldogs’ goaltender Riley Carr. Horworth fired a one-timer below the glove of Carr to give the Jacks a 2-0 lead.
Vickers finished off the second frame by scoring two goals for the Jacks – who had been attacking vigorously for the remainder of the period – to give the home side four heading back to the room.

The third period saw a lot of action from both teams with nobody able to best the goalies until 22 seconds left in the frame when Rob Hinschberger would get the puck deep in Jack territory and move it to centre ice before finding Mitch Metzger, who beat two defencemen on his way to the net only to pass it at the last second to Tyler Eckert catching Burford’s Carr off guard as he slipped it just inside the left post for his team’s fifth of the night.

Netminder Josh Heer had an outstanding night in stopping 40 shots on net for the win and his first shutout of the season for the Jacks. Heer was recently named to the SOJHL all-star team as the top goalie of the league.

“[Heer] is an outstanding player; he gives us chances to win and always makes the big saves to keep us in the game. He is just a fantastic kid all around and we a very happy with his performance for us this season,” said Fitzpatrick.

The next night, again on home ice, the Jacks would dominate the visiting Norfolk Rebels, scoring seven unanswered goals in two periods of play.
Hinschberger got things rolling at 9:55 in the first period, singlehandedly beating Rebel goaltender Jeff Stillman.

Two minutes later the Jacks went on the powerplay when Norfolk’s forward Dillon Hulton was sent to the box for tripping. The Jacks wasted little time taking advantage of the penalty, as Way tallied his first on the night on assists from Metzger and Geoff Parr.
Eckert would finish the period by beating Stillman low on the glove side, making it 3-0.

The Jacks were firing on all cylinders in the second frame with Way scoring his second of the night unassisted at 5:31. Nine minutes later Way completed his hat trick, scoring his team-leading 20th goal of the year assisted by Metzger and Vickers.

The Jacks would register two more goals in the last minute of play in the period from Josh Herd at 19:21 and James Mildon 19:33.
Returning to the ice

for the third the Jacks were a little at ease, making decent plays and keeping out of trouble when during a struggle in front of Wellesley’s net Norfolk’s Jason Bruckler beat Jacks goalie Jordan Bauman to give his team their first point on the board.

That goal returned the Jacks to their fighting ways and they scored three goals less than two minutes apart: Vickers, McLeod and Bobby Gray.
The weekend wins move the Jacks within four points of first place in the division.

The Jacks are on home ice today (Saturday) to face off against the Hagersville Hawks, with one point separating the two teams in the standings.

“There were 11 goals scored, so it was a great game for the fans,” said head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick. “I think the only two people not happy were me and Josh Heer.”

The Jacks opened the scoring with the man-advantage at 12:58 when Corey Way tallied his team-leading 17th goal of the year from Herd and Kevin Howorth.

Ayr didn’t take long to respond, however, as Tyle Gauthier tied the game less than two minutes later from Scott Sippel at 14:20 of the first.

The teams entered the first intermission tied, with Ayr holding a 19-13 edge in shots.
In the second, Wellesley broke the game open thanks to a pair of quick goals by McLeod, who scored at 4:11 from Matt Sovereign and again at 7:31 from Herd and Rob Hinschberger.

The Centennials’ Jordan Eby got Ayr back in the match when he beat Heer at 10:30 from Sippel.
Derek Lebold was sent to the box for holding at 12:51, giving Ayr the opportunity to tie the match, but instead Brett Vickers restored Wellesley’s two goal cushion with a shorthanded goal at 14:48 from McLeod to make it 4-2.

The scoring continued at a torrid pace with Ayr’s Andrew Tapsell making it 4-3 at 17:06, before Way scored his second of the night just 19 seconds later to put Wellesley up 5-3 heading into the third period.

The Centennials wouldn’t go quietly, however, and managed to crawl back into the match.

Tapsell tallied a powerplay marker early from Declan Kaster for his second goal of the night at 3:24 to give Ayr hope of a comeback, and the pair teamed up again at 14:44 with Tapsell finishing off the hat trick to send the game to overtime.

Wellesley wouldn’t let this one slip away, however, and the Jacks sealed the win thanks to Herd’s first goal – and third point – of the night from Hinschberger and Geoff Parr just 34 seconds into the extra frame.
Despite losing the lead, Fitzpatrick was pleased with the way his team controlled much of the game.
“They came in spurts, we came in waves,” he said.

When the Jacks scored their first goal of the game, the fans also tossed a record 137 teddy bears onto the ice. The bears will make their way to Stratford General Hospital and to other local charities.

After facing off against Burford (8-16-2) on Friday night, the Jacks (15-7-2) are right back at it Saturday when they take on the lowly Norfolk Rebels (1-19-3). Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Fitzpatrick said despite the poor record of both teams, they aren’t looking past them.

“Burford plays tough every game, and if you look at Norfolk they’re in about 90 per cent of their games until the third period. We have five weeks until the playoffs, and we have to run the table here.”