U15 Cyclones Advance to Alliance Championship
The U15 Chatham-Kent Cyclones AAA are headed to the Alliance Hockey Championship after defeating the Waterloo Wolves in a thrilling seven game playoff series.
The seventh seeded U15 Cyclones (14-12-5) punched their ticket to the league championships with a 4-2 victory over the second seeded Wolves (20-6-4) in Waterloo on Saturday night.
Martyn Van De Pol scored the winning goal in the series clincher. Colin Williams scored twice and Jack VanderGriendt added a goal in the winning effort. Gavin Toole picked up the win in net for the Cyclones.
In game six of the series, Van De Pol scored 12 seconds into overtime to give the Cyclones the lead in the series.
Head coach Lee Giffin said the series win was the result of “a total team effort”.
“I am very proud of the boys,” Giffin said. “We needed all 18 players to be ready to compete, to win the battles. They worked hard and earned the win.”
Assistant coach Don Evanitski echoed Giffin’s remarks. “It took total team buy-in. We put a lot of work into our game plan and executed when opportunities presented themselves.”
The U15 Cyclones take a 24-23-10 overall record to the Championship tournament. Their bench staff was invited to coach the league All Star Game back in January.
The Alliance Hockey Championship will take place March 27-29 in Komoka, ON. It will feature other series winners Elgin-Middlesex, Brantford and Windsor. Waterloo qualified for the tournament based on their regular season record.
The winner of the tournament will advance to the Provincial AAA Championships April 8-12.
Team photo: Front Row(L-R): Gavin Toole, Lachlan Novakowski, Ashton Malacaria, Colin Williams, Jack VanderGriendt, Dylan Evanitski, Ben Banting, Ed Batte, Evan Glaister. Back Row(L-R): Mark VanderGriendt (manager), Lee Giffin (Head Coach), Ryan Gavigan (Coach), Ryan Symmers, Matt Cranston, Gavin Lumley, Hayden Gibson, Locklan Giffin, Lynkoln Gavigan, Martyn VandePol, Andrew Watson, Grayson Markovic, Mike Novakowski (trainer), Jim Williams (Coach), Don Evanitski (Coach)