ST. JOHN'S (ATL) DEFEATS COLLEGE ANTOINE-GIROUARD (QUE) TO WIN BRONZE!
Sunday, April 25, 2010 - Submitted by MidgetAAACanada.com
The St. John's Fog Devils have won the 2010 Telus Cup Bronze Medal by defeating Les Gaulois du College Antoine-Girouard 5-4.
They have surely put Newfoundland Midget AAA hockey on the map after having a stellar season going undefeated in league and playoff play, suffering only one loss in Regionals.
Led by their 2010 MidgetAAACanada.com National Offensive Player of the Year, Captain Zach O'Brien they can be proud of their accomplishments, as should be Les Gaulois du Collège Antoine-Girouard who came one goal short of a possible medal themselves.
The game started with St. John's scoring first at 4:03 when Marcus Power scored on the powerplay from Zach O'Brien and Cody Squires. Then Collège Antoine-Girouard tied it up at 12:28 on a powerplay of their own when Alexandre Lemieux put one in with helpers going to Francis Lambert-Lemay and Olivier Jodoin.
Consider that St. John's got nine powerplay attempts in the period, you can well imagine what kind of performance Julien Giroux was putting up for les Gaulois with the score only being tied at the end of one period. The shots on goal were twenty for St. John's and eleven for Collège Antoine-Girouard.
When the teams resumed play in the second period the Fog Devils were still on the powerplay and the ice finally broke again when Zach O'Brien scored at 00:53 from Marcus Power and Rodney Mahoney to make it 2-1.
Les Gaulois du Collège Antoine-Girouard evened it up at 2:21 on an even strength goal by Sébastien Sylvestre from Alexandre Bergeron and Dominic Beauchemin, but that didn't last long.
Just thirty-one seconds later, Zach O'Brien scored his second goal of the game from Cody Squires to make it 3-2. Guillaume Mollicone brought his Gaulois back to par with a powerplay goal at 5:50 with the lone assist going to Alexandre Bergeron making it 3-3.
Then just as fate would have it, Zach O'Brien completed his natural hat trick at 9:43 when he put his Fog Devils ahead 4-3 as Marcus Power picked up his second assist of the game.
Dylan Brake gave St. John's an insurance marker at 9:43 from Danny Wicks and Justin Walsh to make it 5-3 and that's how the period ended with scoring.
Shots on goal for the period were eleven for the St. John's and ten for Collège Antoine-Girouard with each team getting three attempts on the powerplay and an identical 1-3 conversion rate.
Down by two goals Collège Antoine-Girouard had their work cut out for them and their focus paid off in the first half of the period as Dominic Beauchemin scored at 7:16 from Cédric Leblanc to bring les Gaulois within one at 5-4.
Unfortunately instead of being able to build momentum, the wind was knocked out of their sails when they took two penalties starting at 9:24 for interference and 13:03 for high sticking.
With only a little over five minutes left the two teams fought hard. One trying to hang on, and the other fighting to climb back, but St. John's held on backed by the stellar goaltending and a little luck to claim the Bronze Medal.
The shots on goal were Fog Devils five for a total of thirty-six, and les Gaulois thirteen giving them thirty-four for the game.
Both goaltenders stood on their heads trying to give their teams hope and life to claim some hardware and should be recognized along with their team's collective efforts, fantastic coaching staffs, their organizations, parents, families, friends and fans.
You have given everyone more excitement and created more memories than you can imagine!
Congratulations to both teams on their achievements this season. We'll see some of you back next year, and hopefully many of you moving up to higher level opportunities in both hockey and life.
