Under-11 Thunder go to ‘A’ final of tournament
By Rob Vogt
The Claresholm Under-11 Thunder advanced all the way to the “A” final of their home hockey tournament on the weekend, before falling to a familiar foe.
The Thunder hosted a tournament on Dec. 6 to 8 at Claresholm Arena, attracting teams from Calgary and Okotoks.
The Thunder opened play on Saturday, Dec. 7, defeating the Okotoks Oilers by a score of 5-2.
Okotoks led 2-1 after 20 minutes, with Claresholm’s goal coming from Burke Heggie, assisted by Quinn McIntyre and Cruz Kornfeld.
It was all Thunder after that.
They scored three unanswered goals in the second period, from Lincoln Groves, assisted by Owen Martin and Austin Larkin; Martin, assisted by Rhet Schuler and Dominic Martineau; and Martin, assisted by Heggie and Courtland Blake, to lead 4-2.
Claresholm added an unassisted insurance goal by McIntyre in the third period to win by that 5-2 final score.
They were back on the ice later that same day, where they defeated Calgary by a score of 15-1 with four goals in the first period, eight in the second period, and three in the third period.
Scoring for the Thunder were Larkin, assisted by McIntyre; Martin, assisted by Kyden Vandervalk and Dakota Sundquist; Larkin, assisted by McIntyre; Groves, assisted by Larkin; McIntyre, assisted by Blake and Heggie; Larkin, assisted by Heggie; Heggie, assisted by McIntyre and Blake; Martin, assisted by Vandervalk; McIntyre, assisted by Larkin; McIntyre, Martin, and McIntyre all unassisted; Groves, assisted by Sundquist; Heath Flynn, assisted by McIntyre and Schuler; and Groves, assisted by McIntyre and Blake.
The result left Claresholm in first in the round robin, and a bye to the Sunday afternoon final against Okotoks, who defeated Calgary in the semi-final.
Claresholm jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period with goals by Heggie, unassisted; Heggie, assisted by Sundquist and Schuler; and McIntyre, assisted by Larkin and Flynn.
However, the Oilers responded with four straight goals in the second period, to lead 4-3 after 40 minutes, and an insurance goal in the third period to win by a score of 5-3.
