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Ice nip Rockies to take East Kootenay bantam crown
The Cranbrook Bantam Tier 3 Ice got some late game heroics by their captain Brandon Ouilette and again in overtime as the Bantam Ice won the East Kootenay A Division Banner with a dramatic 7-6 overtime win over the Invermere Rockies Sunday afternoon (Feb. 26) at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena in Invermere.
The round-robin tournament featuring five teams from Cranbrook, Creston, Elk Valley, Whitefish, Mont., and Invermere, got off to a rough start for the Ice as the club dropped a 7-2 decision to Invermere Friday night to open the weekend.
With almost no room for error the rest of the way, the Ice defeated Whitefish 5-2 Saturday morning, beat Creston 4-1 later that afternoon and then dumped Elk Valley 6-2 to set up the rematch in the championship final against the Invermere.
The see-saw battle saw the Ice go up by a goal five times only to have the Rockies knot the score every time. In the third period Invermere took their first lead 6-5 on Nick Hoobanoff’s third of the game and held off the Ice right up until the final minute, setting up the finale. With the goaltender pulled for an extra attacker a shallow dump-in allowed Ouilette to come off the boards with the puck. He shovelled the puck at the net that managed to beat the Rockies netminder to tie at 6 with 11.9 seconds left in the game.
With all the momentum, two minutes into overtime Ouilette again was the hero after he took a pass from Wyatt Manning, walked out of the corner and deked the goaltender for the hat-trick goal and the championship winner.
The Ice got goals from Kortlen Tschetters, James Rota, Jacob Bromley, Chase Leroux and Ouilette, with the hat-trick, while Brady Reid got the win in goal.
Above photo: Left-to-Right – Top Row: Jeff Bromley (Coach), James Leroux (Trainer), Kortlen Tschetters, Wyatt Manning, Justin Hayes, James Rota, Colton Stishenko, Connor MacKinnon, Chase Leroux, Mitchell Anderson, Rob D’Etcheverrey (assistant coach), Sean McCormack (assistant coach).Front Row: Brandon Ouilette, Jacob Bromley, Brady Reid, Rylan D’Etcheverrey, Caden McCormack, Travis Large, Jorden Lehman. Missing from picture – Thomas Stambulic (injured), Dalton Kidd (injured), Ryan Ullman (injured).
