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The SRSS Sabres hockey team hit the road to the Wheat City last Thursday afternoon to take part in the 2023 Victoria Inn Hockey Tournament over the weekend. The 24-team tournament featured eight pools of three teams. After pool play, teams were placed in the A-side, B-side and C-side brackets.

The Sabres had a strong showing in pool play, defeating the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints of Kenora by a score of 11-2 and defeating the Sandy Bay Badgers by a score of 14-1.

The Sabres matched up with the St. John’s-Ravenscourt Eagles on Saturday morning in the A-side quarterfinal and emerged victorious with a 7-2 win. The Sabres advanced to the A-side semifinal game against the Prairie Mountain Mustangs and won by a score of 8-2.

The Sunday morning A-side final featured a 2023 MHSAA Provincial Hockey Championship rematch between the Sabres and the Garden City Fighting Gophers. The Sabres got out to an early 2-0 lead as Colton Wiebe scored on a partial breakaway and Drew Heide slammed home a nice feed from Jager Bueckert. The Sabres failed to capitalize on several great chances in the second period and the Gophers got on the board with 0.1 seconds remaining with a powerplay goal on a rebound. The Gophers continued to push back in the third period as a low-to-high pass was deposited into the far side of the net to equalize the game. Colton Wiebe responded for the Sabres with his 12th goal of the tournament as he zipped past a Gopher defenceman and sniped the go-ahead goal top shelf on the glove-side. The Gophers found an answer again as they capitalized on another powerplay and then added a go-ahead goal of their own a few minutes later. Dominic Rooney had other plans as the Sabres moved the puck around the umbrella on the powerplay before he sent home the game-tying goal over the screened Gopher netminder’s glove. The game required 3-on-3 overtime in which, after three and a half exciting minutes, Lucas Jolicoeur flew down the ice on a 2-on-1 and fired the game-winner off of the Gopher netminder’s blocker and in. 5-4 Final (OT). Trae Fast made 14 saves in the win.

Top Point Scorers

Colton Wiebe – 12 goals, 5 assists (tied for second overall in tournament scoring)
Lucas Jolicoeur – 8 goals, 9 assists (tied for second overall in tournament scoring)
Chase Bueckert – 2 goals, 6 assists
Drew Heide – 4 goals, 4 assists
Jude Plett – 2 goals, 6 assists

Colton Wiebe was awarded Tournament MVP honours.

In other news, the Sabres have dropped three of their last four league games and will look to improve their WHSHL regular season record (4-4-2) this week with games against Garden City at home on Wednesday (4:00 PM) and at Stonewall (4:00 PM) on Friday.

Thanks for reading,
John Laninga
SRSS Teacher
SRSS Sabres Hockey

in: Athletics