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Penguins perfect in pee wee playoffs

Nelson minor hockey team claims West Kootenay banner
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The Nelson Pee Wee Penguins and their banner. The team includes: (back row L-R) Dean Winters

For the second year in a row, the Nelson Penguins have brought home the West Kootenay banner as champions of pee wee house.

With wins over two of their hometown rivals, a host Castlegar team, an upstart Beaver Valley club and a  powerful Nakusp squad, a core group of Penguins players will now have two banners hanging in the NDCC side-by-side.

Coach Larry Martel and four players — Brendan Martel, Eamon Studer, Andrew Falcone and Jesse Beauvais — who captured the 2009-10 banner were in the line-up for this year’s season climax in Castlegar this past weekend.

The Penguins run to the title started on Friday night against the Nelson Spartans. Seeded second after the regular season, taking on the number four seeded Spartans proved to be a good opening test.

Studer got the Penguins off to a 2-0 lead by midway point of the second period. A minutes after his second goal, Spartans forward Darian Johnson cut the lead in half when he beat Beavauis. Early in the third period Spartans captain Benoit Thibault tied the score. Midway through the final period Studer notched the hat trick to give the Penguins the lead. Falcone salted away the game with a goal in the third to get the Penguins off to a solid start.

On Saturday morning the Penguins took on more familiar faces when they locked horns with the Nelson Golden Leafs. Though seeded eighth after the regular season, the Golden Leafs held a 3-2 lead late in the second. With just under two minutes left in the middle frame Quin Hall tied the game on a blast from the point. In the third period the Penguins broke the game open with five unanswered goals and scored an 8-4 victory.

In the final game of the round-robin the Penguins took on the tenth seeded Castlegar Canadians. With Studer scoring his third hat trick in as many games, the Penguins coasted to an 8-4 win.

“It looked like Studer was shooting into a soccer net this weekend,” said coach Martel. “You get days like this, but it doesn’t happen too often.”  

The 3-0 record put the Penguins in first in their pool heading into the Sunday semi-final against the Beaver Valley Hawks.

Though seeded ninth, the Hawks gave the Penguins all they could handle. Trailing 3-2 late in the second period, Brendan Martel scored with only seconds left to send the teams into the final period tied. Beaver Valley once again took the lead and with less than a minute left in the game, Hall again fired a shot that found net and tied the score 5-5. With the score tied after regulation the teams needed overtime to solve it. With 9.2 seconds left in the five-minute overtime, Penguins defenceman T.J. Winters took a shot from the point that was tipped by Alek McMillan and propelled the Nelson team into the final.

In the final the Penguins faced Nakusp, a combined pee wee/bantam team that was fresh off 4-2 a semi-final win over the Nelson Spartans.

“The kids played a nearly perfect game with a near perfect transition game and taking high percentage shots and allowing very few turnovers,” said coach Martel.

In a hard-fought contest the teams were tied 1-1 late in the second period when Winters pounced on a loose puck at the blueline, rushed in and beat a sprawled out Nakusp goalie to give the Penguins the lead. Midway through the third period, Nakusp’s Dane Bateman managed to beat Beauvais to tie the score at two. Two minutes after that, Studer fed a perfect pass to rookie McMillan who fired a shot high to notch his second game winning goal in a row.

The Penguins are also coached by Bob Hall and Dean Winters.

The atom and bantam house playoffs are on tap this weekend. The three Nelson atom teams are travelling to Trail and Nakusp. The two bantam house teams will be hosting the playoffs in Nelson.