One Arrow shoots straight in minor hockey final

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Three goals on the opening three shots paved the way for an easy victory by One Arrow in the final of the midget division during the 16th annual Western Canada Native Minor Hockey Championships in Saskatoon on April 20.

Only 13 seconds after the puck dropped, Norman Ledoux finished a two-on-one from Kyle Howarth for an early tally towards an eventual 5-0 win versus the Stanley Mission River Hawks. Less than five minutes later, while shorthanded, One Arrow increased its lead when Corey Tanguay beat his defender at the Hawk blueline and cruised in to deke netminder Rob Geisbrecht.

In the opening period when play was concentrated in the neutral zone, neither team piled up the shots, but when One Arrow did strike, it was with precision. At 9:55, Howarth completed a nifty setup by Adam Daniel and Tyler Bear pushing the margin to three. And while Geisbrecht's save percentage was zero, on all of the goals he was left defenseless.

"When you have opportunities like that, you have to bury them, so good job to them," said Geisbrecht, who permitted more goals in these 10 minutes than he did in the previous four games. "Once you get the early lead, you're ready to play and they did that."

Howarth notched his third point when his linemates Daniel and Bear again combined for their second goal towards the end of the first period.

Tanguay's second shortly after the abbreviated intermission completed the scoring and all that was left was for both teams to ride out the clock.

"It allowed us to lay back the rest of the game," said Howarth, who was named the tournament's MVP, of his team's early lead.

Registering the shutout was Sean McConnell who was rarely tested in kicking out 17 shots. His best save was with three minutes remaining when, with the Hawks on a powerplay, he sprawled out to stop a wrister from Shawn Young.

While the final may have been anti-climatic for One Arrow, getting to gold-medal match had been a challenge. In the semi-final contest against the South Saskatchewan Braves, One Arrow was up against a team comprised of five players who play in the Western Hockey League, with the rest of their roster made up of Junior "A" and Midget "AAA" players.

In contrast, One Arrow had only four players with Junior "A" experience, including Howarth who suits up for the Selkirk Steelers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. But in the end, it was One Arrow that prevailed 3-2. It was a match that was easily the hardest of the tournament for the team, which had breezed through the round robin with three wins and 20 goals for while only surrendering three against.

Howarth credited the goaltending of Mike Clements for the playoff win that elevated One Arrow to the championship.

"Our semi-final was 10 times harder than this game was and in that game against South Saskatchewan, he kept us in it."

Clements in his three victories posted a goals-against of 1.33 with one shutout and his partner McConnell counted a tidy 0.50, plus the goose egg in the final. For the Hawks, even with the loss, Geisbrecht's average was 1.40, with two shutouts during five games.

The midget final was the conclusion of a hockey-packed weekend at the Jemini Sports Complex. Besides the 16 teams in the older age group, 57 other squads laced up their skates in five other categories ranging from pre-novice to bantam.