Dallas Junior Hockey Association

A season of hard work for the Squirt Minor 98 Penguins was fulfilled this passed weekend.  Our young Penguins Captured the International Silver Stick Squirt Minor A Championship.   Their dream has become reality 

The Penguins placed first in their bracket by defeating a solid North London team 1-0, earning a tie with a tough Belleville JR Bulls squad 1-1 and wrapping up the round robin play with a decisive 5-1 victory over the New Market Redmen.  As the team completed round robin play they gathered steam executing an aggressive fore-check, complemented with solid passing and great defense.   

In the semi-final our Penguins faced the Orillia Terriers.  This game was pure nail biting suspense as it went into a second over time with Penguins winning 2-1.  Both teams had great opportunities in this exciting end to end action game.   The team showed a never say die attitude in the game with a ferocious fore-check and determined back check led by Tommy Evanyk.  It could have gone either way, but at 4:09 of the second OT while killing a penalty Boone Hoenshell drove down the left side and buried the puck low glove side to advance the Penguins to the championship.  

On to the Finals....The Boys were ready and it showed they came out firing on all cylinders and grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the first and never looked back on their way to a 3-0 Victory over the Kanata Blazers.  Our Forwards executed flawlessly in their fore-check and back check.  The Defense stood strong led by the Captain Niko Ala-Kokko not allowing the Kanata Blazers any time or space to make plays in the defensive zone.  When shots made it to the net they were denied by the awesome performance of Kevin Graves.   He only allowed 3 goals in 5 games with 2 shutouts.  Yes...this young Texan lead all goaltending statistics for the Squirt Minor A Silver Stick Championship.

The team played with heart and followed their coach Ben Des Rosiers's lead and executed like Champions.   

As stated on Yorkregion.com

"On the single-A side, Kevin Graves provided shutout net minding as the Dallas Penguins blanked Kanata Blazers 3-0. Colin Brignola, Cole Watson and Matthew O'Brien accounted for the Penguins goals."

Congratulations boys, coaches and the never say die fans who made enough noise to bring down the house!!