CANORA - “You’d never know it by Canora’s record of one win, one regulation loss, and one shootout loss, but the U13 Cobras played well during their home tournament in Canora on Nov. 12-13,” according to Coach Terry Demchuk.
“Our team played a very good team-oriented brand of hockey.”
Canora’s first game of the day on Saturday was a 3-2 loss to Oxbow. The Cobras trailed 3-0 after two periods, unfortunately a furious third period rally just ran out of time. Zarin Godhe scored both third period goals, with assists from Cameron Sznerch, Ashton Strelioff and Emmet Demchuk.
With the loss, the Cobras moved to the B side of the tournament, where the Preeceville Pats provided the next opposition late in the day on Saturday. Zarin Godhe got Canora on the scoreboard with an unassisted goal in the first period, but the Cobras went into the third trailing 4-1. Strong team play lead to a successful comeback, with four third-period goals and an improbable 5-4 win. Kasen Heshka and Ryea Harper scored to narrow the gap to one. Chloe Doogan scored with 1:21 left to tie the score. And just when it was looking like the game was going to overtime, Zarin Godhe potted the winner with only 22 seconds remaining.
Declan Friesen and Shiloh Leson were the top playmakers with two assists each. Other helpers came from Rowyn Johnson and Ashton Friesen.
The big comeback earned the Cobras a spot in the B final against the Moosomin Rangers. The Rangers started fast, and had a 4-0 lead by the second period. But Wade Vangen got the Cobras on the scoreboard before the second intermission, assisted by Declan Friesen. Early in the third, Canora closed the gap to one with goals by Tessica Mydonick, assisted by Cameron Sznerch, and Declan Friesen, assisted by Wade Vangen. Moosomin clung to the narrow lead, but the Cobras pulled the goalie and Zarin Godhe found the back of the net with the tying goal with only 27 seconds left,, assisted by Rowyn Johnson, sending the game to overtime at 4-4.
The 10-minute overtime period solved nothing. A shootout was required to decide the outcome, with Moosomin coming out on top to win the B-side championship.
Goalies Mason Reine and Ty Northrup shared time between the pipes over the weekend, and both played well, according to Coach Demchuk, who was pleased with his team’s effort.
“Everyone contributed a lot of cycling the puck down low behind the goal line. We did a lot of passing and good back checking. A quick look at the scoresheets so far this year looks like every player on the team has at least one point each after four games.”
Demchuk said the strong team play so far this season includes both netminders.
“The fact that both goalies can shut the door and give this team a chance for these comebacks speaks to the character of every player on this team. Starting the season with four comeback games, three tournament and one league game, that resulted in two wins, a shootout overtime loss and a one-goal regulation loss should only prove to our players that they are capable of working their way back and never give up.”
From the results of games so far this season, Demchuk said the players need to compete harder earlier in games.
“This is a close-knit team and they all stick together and play for each other. This weekend marks the first home tournament this team was able to have together since IP hockey. We have to thank all the parents, the head organizer Cindy Wolkowski and the team manager Jaimie Johnson. These people allow us as coaches just to work with these kids so they can be competitive and have fun.
“I must say, you can see it on their faces that whether they win or lose, they are an exciting team to watch and haven’t been out of anything yet. I have coached for roughly 20 years from house league to AA, and teams that never give up are the most fun to be around. Overall, I believe these ‘Cardiac Kids’ have had a great start to their year,” concluded Demchuk.
Canora’s next home game is Dec. 17 versus the Melville Millionaires.
