Rebels win

Riley Damiani was a force to be reckoned with throughout the All-Ontario Pee Wee AAA Championship.

On Friday night at Fort William Gardens, he showed the Nickel City Sons why.

The Mississauga Rebels captain scored a hat trick, tying for the tournament lead in goals with 12, and was the first to hoist the trophy, leading his team to a 6-4 championship win over the Nickel City Sons.

Damiani, who added five assists at the weeklong event, was ecastic.

But then again, what 13-year-old wouldn’t be?

“It was great. Just to pull out that win with all the boys, I’ve been waiting for this all along,” he said, “I’m so glad we got to get it now.”
The back-and-forth affair was one in which the Rebels, who bring the title back to their community for the first time since 1990, just seemed to keep the upper edge in.

Twice they took a one-goal lead, and twice the Sudbury side managed to pull even. But the Rebels, the pre-tournament favourite, kept plugging away, extending their lead to two and eventually three.

“We just battled hard the whole game and it was good for the boys,” said Damiani, surrounded by his teammates on the Fort William Gardens ice.

“All of us, we all battled hard and came back with everything. They played us very well. They’re a very skilled team and it was just a big battle all the way through.”

Coach Geoff Schomogyi, who led the Bantam AAA Rebels to a similar victory two years ago in Thunder Bay, said it was a tough win for his present team.

“There wasn’t much flow to the game with a lot of penalties and back-and-forth scoring chances. But we tried to keep the boys focused on the bench and I thought they did a good job of it. They knew what our task was when we came here and fortunately enough we were able to complete it.”

Damiani opened the scoring early in the first, only to have Christian Gaudreau tie it up for Nickel City at the 7:55 mark of the opening period, a courageous backhand effort after he was stopped point blank by Mississauga goalie Cristian Cugini.

Damiani fired a one-timer to restore the one-goal lead at 9:05, but less than three minutes later Nickel City’s Quinton Bertrand stole the puck from Rebels forward Jack Hughes and raced down the ice, slipping a shorthanded goal through Cugini’s pads.

But with 36 seconds to go in the first, Anthony Aguanno delivered yet another one-goal lead, beating Conner Sauve, who lasted less than a minute into the second when he was pulled after Santino Foti scored to make it 4-2 Rebels.

Ryan Fournier closed the lead to one again at the 3:36 mark of the second, but Hughes made up for his earlier miscue a couple minutes later, dishing a pass to Damiani who rifled a slapshot past new Sons goalie Matty Mayhew.

Four minutes into the third Damien Giroux was awarded a penalty shot after a Rebels player closed his hand on the puck, but Cugini poke checked the puck out of harm’s way.

The Sons also had a goal disallowed on a quick whistle midway through the third.

Nickel City’s 6-foot-6, 210-pound defenceman Ethan Lavallee was ejected late in the third, handed two misconducts and a game misconduct.