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The Citizen, 2012-02-02, Page 8PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012.Sports Local Bantam team wins International Silver Stick The Blyth Brussels Bantam Rep team won the 22nd Annual North American International Silver Stick in Forest this past weekend. The team earned the chance to participate after winning the Bantam “C” Regional Silver Stick title in Kincardine between Christmas and New Year’s. The calibre of teams made the road to the finals a tough path. The team was 2-1 in round robin play. On Friday the team put up a 4-2 win against Shelbourne, only to have Saturday morning bring them their first (regulation time) loss (6-2) of the season against a tough team from Ilderton. The team fought back with a 2-0 win late Saturday against Wayne, New Jersey. The record was good enough to give them a berth in an early semi- final game Sunday morning against East Lambton. The early time seemed to catch the boys flat in the opening minutes of the first period. Once the boys found their legs they were able to find the back of the net to post a 5-2 lead late into the second period. An exciting third period with a great amount of persistence paid off and the boys squeaked out a 6-5 thriller to earn the right to head to the finals on Sunday afternoon against the tough squad from Ilderton. Goals were scored by Dustin Pennington from Reece McArter, Wyatt Ducharme from Trent Michie and Quinton Sjaarda, Ducharme from Hayden Ten Pas, Ducharme from Ten Pas, Josh Van Soest from Ducharme and Arden Coultes, Coultes from Luke McCutcheon. Weather didn’t hold fans back from travelling from the Blyth Brussels area to see the boys in the exciting final game. Blyth-Brussels put up the first goal of the game (Trent Michie from Pennington) only to have the Ilderton team put in a power play goal for the 1-1 tie. Another power play goal found the Ilderton team up 2-1. Brussels fought back to tie the game 2-2 (Jordan Hubbard from Pennington) going into the third. The boys stayed strong throughout the third period which resulted in the 3-2 (Ducharme from Sjaarda) lead late into the third. With less than a minute to play Blyth Brussels took a penalty and Ilderton pulled their goaltender. Tight forechecking and a few key icings kept Ilderton from capitalizing on their 6-4 man advantage and gave the boys the win. Matt McNichol, Ten Pas and Pennington were voted to the tournament’s all-star team. The team play of the boys along with the outstanding support of coaching staff, family and friends have given the Blyth Brussels Bantam Rep team a “silver-lined” moment they will cherish the rest of their lives. The North American International Silver Stick Banner Presentation will took place in the Brussels Arena on Wednesday, Feb. 1 prior to 9 p.m. game (second round of playoffs – Blyth Brussels Bantam Rep against Bruce Peninsula Northstars Game one). Golden The Blyth Brussels Bantam Reps went to Forest last weekend and came home with a gold medal from the International Silver Stick finals in the Bantam C final. The official banner presentation was made on Wednesday night before the team’s first round playoff game. The team is, back row, from left: Bert Sjaarda (trainer), Chris Michie (head coach), Luke McCutcheon, Wyatt Ducharme, Hayden Ten Pas, Jordan Hubbard, Arden Coultes, Reece McArter, Josh Van Soest, Connor Rodger and Brian McArter (manager). Front row, from left: Trent Michie, Dustin Pennington, Dalton Carey, Matt McNichol, Jarod Logan and Quinton Sjaarda. Absent was Mike Logan (trainer) and Dallas Pennington (coach). (Photo submitted) Ironmen lose to Mount Forest on weekend One game was played on the weekend and second game was postponed and played during the week. That was how the weekend went for the Wingham Ironmen as they tried to wrap up the regular season of the Western Junior C Hockey League. The Ironmen hosted the sixth- place Mount Forest Patriots on Friday at the North Huron Wescast Community Complex and were handed a 6-3 setback. Wingham was scheduled to play in Walkerton on Saturday evening but the game was postponed due to the weather and rescheduled for last night (Wednesday) in Walkerton. Tevin Salland gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead at 1:58 of the first period against Mount Forest. Travis Donaldson tied the game at one at 4:56 with Aaron Armstrong and Darren Kerr getting the assists. Salland regained the lead for Mount Forest at 6:36 and Troy Hill gave the Patriots a 3-1 lead after one period. Tyler Kellum put the Ironmen one goal back at 3:48 with an unassisted tally. Hill regained the two-goal advantage for the Patriots. Steve Hutchison got the Ironmen within one at 8:44 on the power play with Evan Ducharme getting the assist. Dylan Hoffman put the Patriots two goals up at 11:50 and Hill made the score 6-3 at 13:29 of the second period. There was no scoring in the third period. Wingham outshot Mount Forest 37-31 and was 1-6 on the power play. Coach Chad Haggitt of Blyth said it wasn’t really a good game for the Ironmen. “I think some of the guys just came ready knowing that we’re playing Kincardine and that’s the way we played tonight,” he said. The coach said they had chances but were just unable to score when they needed to. He added that Mount Forest was able to score on their chances. The top line for the Ironmen, Armstrong, Donaldson and Wade Stephenson, was not clicking during the game and Haggitt said that happens some times. “I’m sure they’ll be ready to go tomorrow (Saturday) night,” he said. The first round of playoffs against the Kincardine Bulldogs begin this weekend. By Jim Brown The Citizen Winter Sports Pages Blyth B u l l d o g s A t o m — B a c k r o w , f r o m l e f t : L o r e t t a T h o m p s o n , T r e v o r R a y n a r d , Aaron P o p p , T y l e r B l a c k , J o h n L e C o m t e , J e f f P l a e t z e r , M a t t h e w P o p p , F o u r t h r o w : Coache s K i r k S t e w a r t , C h a d H a g g i t t , C o l e S t e w a r t , K a r e n P e n n i n g t o n , D o r e e n Thomps o n , L i n d a P l a e t z e r , D o u g W a l k e r , L a r r y P l a e t z e r . T h i r d r o w : C o d y D u c h a r m e , Dana Te e d , J a m i e P l a e t z e r , K e l s e y S m i t h , M a t t h e w C l a r k e , E m m a B r o h m . S e c o n d row: Ry a n P a q u i n , A l i c i a M i d d e g a a l , C a r l y W h i t f i e l d , C o d y R i c h m o n d , K i r b y C o o k , Cody K e d d y , C a l e b B r o w n . F r o n t r o w : A d a m C r o n i n , K e v i n P e n n i n g t o n , J o n a t h o n Atkinso n , K a y l a B l a c k . A b s e n t : S t e v e n E l l i s . The Citizen Coaches and parents ~ we need your team’s picture and players’ names • Hockey • Broomball 1. Please submit team photo A.S.A.P. 2. Please include players’ and coaches’ names for under the photo. Please help us get ALL the Winter Sports teams published. 404 Queen St., Blyth 519-523-4792541 Turnberry St., Brussels 519-887-9114 Wrapping it up The Wingham Ironmen played over the weekend, losing to Mount Forest and wrapped up their regular season on Wednesday night. The team finished in fourth place and is looking at a matchup with Kincardine in the first round of the playoffs. (Jim Brown photo) See histories and historic photographs on the Huron History section of our website www.northhuron.on.ca