March Madness ends in Peewee B title

The underdog BMHA squad put together another scrappy never-say-die effort on Sunday afternoon to knock off the NGS Braves of Maxville by a 4-2 margin, claiming the overall Upper Canada League championship.

Scoring sensation Connor Durant raised his game at a crucial moment, coming up with two goals and helping set up linemate Max McDonald for two more. Brockville goalie Xavier Martell was up to his old tricks once again, keeping the NGS attackers at bay numerous times when the game was tied 2-2.

McDonald got the go-ahead marker five minutes into the third period and the Jr. Braves made that lead stand up, clinching it with an empty-netter. Brockville took three out of four meetings with NGS to wrap up a remarkable post-season showing.

Head coach Rick Hall would be the first to tell anyone who doubted Brockville's chances – never take an opponent for granted. The Northern Cables Jr. Braves were certainly not the betting favourite for a playoff title, based on their regular season record of six wins and five ties in 24 tries. Eight other teams finished ahead of them in the standings.

But the Brockville coach offered this view: “In my opinion, our regular season record did not reflect our true capability. Many of the games we lost were by one goal. By midway through the season, I knew this team was going to do great things.”

They seemed to gain valuable momentum by going to the finals in the January BMHA Legion Peewee Tournament, and then won the opening round of the playoffs over the Brockville B1 Jr. Braves. From there, they tackled the powerful Kemptville Panthers (with a record of 20-2-2) in Round 2 and looked to be badly outmatched, dropping the series opener 5-0.

But Brockville made some quick adjustments and won the return game on home ice and then did the unthinkable by sending first-place Kemptville to the sidelines in the North Grenville rink. The West finals pitted the Braves against South Grenville, another formidable opponent. Northern Cables again fell behind in the series 1-0 but fought valliantly to finally beat the Rangers in Game 4.

“Our success came from old-fashioned hard work, along with building confidence, a positive attitude and the willingness to beat the odds,” said coach Hall. “We came up with a game plan of pucks in deep with a hard forecheck …take away the other team's speed by going to the puck and slowing down the neutral zone and strong positional play in the defensive zone. Let the other team make mistakes and we capitalize on them.”

And the coach also heaped praise on his goalie Xavier Martell, who bailed the Braves out when the strategy started to unravel from time to time.

“We got strong, outstanding goaltending. Xavier stood on his head for us many times,” Hall noted.

The Northern Cables team includes Chase Purvis, Andrew Chant, Connor Durant, Callum Hall, Evan Henderson, Joshua Puranda, Blake Feht, Stanley Heath, Max McDonald and Joseph Lacroix up front, with Adam Babbitt, Lucas Henderson, Dylan Wren, Mark Meeson, Katie Goodwin and Jackson Phillips playing defence and Xavier Martell manning the nets.

Rick Hall was assisted on the bench by coaches Mark Henderson and John McDonald, trainers Doug Phillips and Mark Goodwin, and the team manager is Ashley Chant.