Northwestern Ontario All-Stars winless but happy with performance

A glance at the scoreboard and one might think the Northwestern Ontario All-Stars are out of their league at the All-Ontario Pee Wee Championship.

But scoreboards don’t always tell the full story.

A rag-tag collection of 12 and 13-year-old hockey players from Kenora, Dryden and Sioux Lookout, drawn from AA teams from throughout the region, coach Dan Reynard called the championship a learning process for his troops.

But despite an 11-3 loss Wednesday morning to the top-ranked Mississauga Rebels (4-0-0), Reynard preferred to look at the positives.

“They came in and we know we’re up against it. And they’ve battled hard every game. They’ve accomplished things we’ve never done before. We’ve never gotten a point. We looked at the standings this morning and we’re actually looking down at teams for the first time,” Reynard said.

“We’re going to give our last two games our all. We’re doing well, considering.”

The All-Stars (0-3-1) played just seven games together as a team before this week’s tournament, being played at Thunder Bay’s Fort William Gardens.

Other teams played more than 80 times together, not to mention 135 hours or more of practice time along the way.

“It’s a learning process, but the reason we run the program is to allow them to play against the best in the province and see what it’s like. If they want to keep it going, this is what level they need to play at.”

The All-Stars played the powerhouse Rebels tight for the opening 15 minutes, even taking a 1-0 lead in the first on Cortez Favot’s first of three in the contest.

Goalie Jacob Parker was stellar throughout the game, despite the lopsided score. Though pulled after two periods and his team trailing 6-3 -- Matthew Booth took over to start the third -- Parker kept the All-Stars in contention and prevented a much larger blowout.

His 31-save performance did not go unnoticed. 

“Jacob has come a long way. He battled hard. He never quit, and yeah, he made some tremendous, tremendous saves.”

Reynard also had high praise for his hat-trick scoring forward, the team’s lone goal scorer.

“Normally he’s not a big goal scorer, but he does the things other people don’t see. He battles hard on the wall. He’s strong defensively. He’s a really smart player. So today he was rewarded for it. Everything he shot went in,” Reynard said of Favot.

“Our problem was we couldn’t get him to shoot the puck 12 times.”

The Rebels had some big performances of their own. Forward Nicholas Canade contributed three goals and two assists and teammate Riley Damiani also finished with a hat trick.

Jack Hughes, named his team’s player of the game, wound up with two goals and three assists, while Markus Klaise collected a goal and four assists.

Thomas Maia and Owen Robinson also scored for Mississauga.

“It was a good game. The boys played well. We really took it to them and got a couple of good goals,” Canade said.
“We’re really using our speed an going around guys.”

Wining four straight is nice, but the round-robin play is just the warm-up for the playoff round, said coach Geoff Schomogyi.
“So far we’re happy with the start we’re off to, but we’re not satisfied yet,” he said.

The Rebels return to the Gardens Wednesday afternoon to tangle with the host Thunder Bay Kings (0-3-1) at 4 p.m.

The All-Stars will seek their first win against winless Elgin-Middlesex at 6 p.m.