The 14 Wing Greenwood Bombers men’s team report a “great week of hockey” at the January Canadian Armed Forces Atlantic region championship: and, they won.
The Bombers took one loss through the round robin, but earned the bye into the final and redeemed that loss with a championship 5-0 win over the CFB Halifax Mariners January 30.
5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown hosted the tournament at Soldiers Arena in Oromocto January 26 to 30, with 12 Wing Shearwater’s Flyers rounding out the region’s representation.
Greenwood opened January 27 with a 6-3 win over the host Warriers. Captain John Livingston made his mark with a hat trick: one in the first period and another two in the second period. Team captain Corporal Tyler Williams opened the scoring in the first period and closed it in the third; and Sailor First Class Ryan Hoskins scored one in the third as well. Gagetown put two on the board in the second period and their third in the third.
January 28’s match against Halifax didn’t go 14 Wing’s way, ending with a 4-1 loss. The Mariners scored two power play goals early in the first period to set the Bombers on their heels, but they picked up their game and heavily outshot Halifax through the rest of play – just not getting a puck past their goalie. In the third, with a couple bad bounces and two breakaway chances, Halifax took it to 4-0. Greenwood’s single, scored with roughly five minutes left in the game, came from Captain David Savery.
The evening game was a good win: a 5-1 result over Shearwater to finish the round robin in first place and head straight to Friday’s final. Williams opened the game with the only goal in the first period. 12 Wing got a second period goal, but three from Corporal Maxwell Longmire, Hoskins and Savery put Greenwood ahead 4-1. In the third, Corporal Francis Parent put in the final goal for the 5-1 finish, with the Bombers picking him as game MVP.
Also in the round robin, Gagetown beat Shearwater 6-0, Shearwater beat Halifax in a 3-2 overtime game, and Gagetown beat Halifax 4-2. In the quarter-final, third-place Halifax beat fourth place Shearwater, and then kept it going through the semi over Gagetown to make the January 30 final against Greenwood.
In the championship’s first period, Greenwood took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Longmire, and padded it to 2-0 in a strong second period on a goal from Hoskins. Greenwood scored three in the third period, from Livingston, Aviator Shamus Locke and Williams. From start to finish. Greenwood selected Captain Niklas Majcher as its game MVP.
