14 Wing Greenwood’s men’s ball hockey team started off strong at the Canadian Armed Forces Atlantic regional tournament in Shearwater: two wins on Day 1; but a semi-final loss ended the title run.
The team opened against CFB Gagetown July 10, taking a 5-2 win. Corporal Tyler Williams scored the first goal, followed by the first of two from Sailor Second Class Ryan Hoskins. Corporal Dylan Ventresca had the third goal, followed by Hoskins’ second, coming on a power play. Corporal Steve Best sealed the deal for Greenwood with the team’s fifth and final goal. Best also added two assists; Hoskins was named Greenwood’s MVP. Shout-out, too, to Sergeant Matt Pittman, who had a solid game in nets: not many shots, but many key saves. Hoskins was named game MVP.
In the evening game, Greenwood met the 12 Wing Shearwater hosts. With a 5-3 win, Greenwood goals in the first period came from Corporal Tyler Currie, getting the opener on a great corner pass from Ventresca: Williams off the face-off, and Hoskins. Shearwater made a great push back in the second m, getting to 3-2, but Greenwood showed great resilience and got its fourth goal from Corporal Simon Landry. Shearwater made it 4-3 in the third, but Williams, with his second goal of the game, put the ball in an empty to lock Greenwood’s second win of the day. He was named Greenwood’s game MVP.
Greenwood went into Day 2 July 11 in good shape, on the floor against CFB Halifax in the last of its round-robin games. Halifax was out with the 1-0 lead first, but Greenwood answered back with goals from Corporal Dylan Thrussell (his first in military regionals), Corporal Dave Brent and linemate Hoskins. Halifax then went on a four-goal run. Resilient and pushing back, Greenwood scored its fourth goal – from Williams – with just four minutes left in the game, and then tied it with 20 seconds left. Five minutes of three-on-three overtime didn’t solve anything; Halifax won in a shoot-out. Game MVP for Greenwood was Thrussell.
The evening semis shaped up, with Greenwood going in in first place against fourth-place Shearwater. The start was rough: what could have been a 3-0 lead for Greenwood were missed shots on goal – with Shearwater capitalizing on every one of the turnovers to race it to an 8-1 win. Greenwood’s single came from Corporal Simon Landry, MVP for the team. Halifax won the second semi-final 3-2 over Gagetown.
The gold-medal game between local rivals provided an exciting finish to the championship July 12, as Halifax took a 4-3 overtime win over Shearwater after two 20-minute periods of regulation time: the first period saw Halifax come away with a 3-1 lead after two quick goals in the final minutes broke an early 1-1 tie. The Shearwater squad answered in the second, quickly making it 3-2 and then tying it up with 12 minutes remaining. The tie held long enough to force the game to overtime but, with plenty of scoring chances on both sides, it was only a matter of time. Halifax’s championship victory also avenged their only loss of the week, when they fell 6-4 against the Flyers in their opening game.
There are no Canadian Armed Forces nationals this season.
