Panthers Calm Cyclones Storm in Alliance Final

The Chatham-Kent Cyclones Minor Atom team seemed destined for another championship this season, after much of their roster collected OMHA titles last season. Unfortunately, the Cyclones’ youngest entry fell just short of the Alliance Championship, falling to the Sun County Panthers in the finals.

Sun County took the series with 4 wins and 1 tie, vaulting them to the 8-points necessary to win the Alliance Championship.

In game 5, which was held at Memorial Arena in Chatham, the Cyclones stormed out of the gate with goals by Cameron Symons from Darby Lemieux, and Jaxon Boucher assisted by Quinn Erickson and Colin Kloostra to put the Cyclones up 2-0. After Sun County scored to make it 2-1, the Cyclones would grab a powerplay marker before the first period was out to regain their two goal lead. The powerplay goal came off the stick of Tilbury’s Darby Lemieux, with assists going to Wallaceburg’s Spencer Chatel, and another Tilbury product Sam McKinlay.

The second period was all Sun County as the Panthers scored twice in just over a minute, including a shorthanded goal, to tie the game at 3-3.

Opening the third, Brendan Mairs scored, from Erickson, to put the Chatham-Kent Cyclones ahead 4-3, but Sun County answered scoring two goals, again in under the span of a minute, to take a 5-4 lead.

Shortly after, Spencer Chatel scored from Mairs and Tate Bowden to tie the game.

Then, with the clock winding down, Sun County scored in the final 30-seconds of the game to lift the Panthers to the Alliance title.

The Minor Atom Chatham-Kent Cyclones had an exceptional season, including reaching the Alliance Hockey final, finishing with a 43-15-9 record overall.