Photo by Marcel Vander Wier
CREASE CRASHING – Peewee Mustangs forward Hugo Burgess tries to jam a puck past Castle Rock goalie Broden Cull while defenders Colton Webb, left, and Kyle Bierlmeier, right, bear down during Sunday’s bantam final.
Peewee Mustangs come back to win bantam final
Set back by an early 2-0 deficit in the final, the Yukon Peewee Mustangs stuck with their game plan and began chipping away.
Set back by an early 2-0 deficit in the final, the Yukon Peewee Mustangs stuck with their game plan and began chipping away.
Their gritty, uniform approach – paired with a nifty hat trick from Errol Ekholm – paid off with a gold medal victory Sunday afternoon in the final of the 2016 Yukon bantam hockey championship at Takhini Arena.
The Peewee Mustangs, sponsored by WinMar, played a tenacious game against their older rivals from Castle Rock.
Colton Webb and Kyle Bierlmeier put early goals past Joshua Wallness to stake Castle Rock to an early lead, but it was all downhill from there.
The Mustangs put five straight goals past Castle Rock netminder Broden Cull – Ekholm had three, with Joshua Schenk and Joey Schultz adding singles.
Team MVP Austin Shaw got Castle Rock back within two with just over a minute left to play, but that was it.
Ekholm was named MVP for the Mustangs after the game.
“It was pretty awesome,” the 12-year-old said, noting he had a protein shake pre-game. “I only scored one goal in the other games this weekend, so it was pretty big.”
Last year, the peewee group lost the bantam final in overtime to the Juneau Capitals, Ekholm recalled.
Despite the early deficit, the team didn’t get down on themselves, coach Jakub Jirousek told the Star.
“We told the boys it’s a long game. They don’t need emotions riding up and down,” he said. “We try to keep them pretty even-keeled.”
As for the territorial title, Jirousek said it’s validation to the young squad about the benefits of buying into a system.
“That’s the biggest win,” he said. “We used these games to help us understand how to play our system.”
Castle Rock coach Cary Goodman said the Mustangs out-skated his club.
“I told our guys: ‘You’ve got to skate. You’ve got to want that.’ And they just didn’t want it. ... I thought we were going to win this one, because our guys were playing so well.”
The three-day, 10-team tournament also featured clubs from Dawson City, Haines Junction, Watson Lake, Fort Nelson, B.C., Inuvik, N.W.T., and Tok, Alaska. The Female Mustangs squad also participated.
DGC Welding – a local bantam house league team – took bronze, thanks in part to a hat trick off the stick of Brandon Petelski.
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Comments (2)
Up 0 Down 2
Martin Wanless on Feb 6, 2016 at 2:11 pm
Mustangs goalie is my son, Joshua Wanless - W A N L E S S - for future reference. Cheers.
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Broaden the Coverage on Feb 2, 2016 at 9:54 am
I understand and appreciate that this is the Whitehorse Star, with that said it would be nice if the communities who have smaller populations and a much shorter hockey season could get some coverage, ie team mvps and what not, it means the world to them. They don't see their names in the paper every month.