PeeWee News

The past weekend the Freeze traveled to Cadillac to play in the season ending Hockey Night in Cadillac St. Patties Day Tournament.  The kids had a great time and ended the tournament on a great note winning its last two games and taking 5th place out of eight teams.

On Friday night the Freeze opened the tournament against KOHA #2 Flames, a team that had beaten them 6-3 three weeks earlier.  The Flames got on the board first with just under ten minutes left in the first period on a power play goal.  The Freeze answered that goal a minute later on a goal by Zac Drake on an assist from Dalton Wolfe.  The Flames would add another power play goal in the period with just over five minutes to play to make the score after one period 2-1 Flames.  A minute and a half into the second period the Flames would make it 3-1 on a short handed goal.  With no more scoring in the second period, the Freeze went into the third period trailing 3-1.  The Flames would add their last goal with just over eight minutes to play in the game to make the final score 4-1 Flames.

Saturday morning the Freeze played the GRAHA (Grand Rapids Area Hockey Association) Screamin' Eagles, a team they had not played this season.  Just over two minutes into the period, the Eagles would score the only goal of the first period to make the score after one period 1-0 Eagles.  The Freeze would tie the game with seven minutes to play in the second period on Mason Freehling's first goal of the season, a slapshot from the point, on an assist from Nick Bird.  The game would remain deadlocked for the next nine minutes when the Eagles would score their first of four goals in the third period.  Their second goal of the third period, a power play goal, would come a minute later making the score 3-1 Eagles.  The Eagles would add another goal with just over five minutes to play and their last with two minutes left in the game making the final score 5-1 Eagles.

Saturday evening the Freeze took on the Lansing Capitals #2 team, another team they had not played all season.  Things didn't start out very good for the Freeze as the Capitals scored first, two and a half minutes in the game, to take an early 1-0 lead.  However, the Freeze would answer just ten seconds later on a goal from Mike Gorton with an assist from Joe DeFay.  That was all the scoring for the first period leaving the score tied after one period 1-1.  Thirty seconds into the second period the Freeze would score to take the lead 2-1, on Zac Drake's second goal of the tournament.  The Freeze would make the score 3-1, three minutes later on Mike Gorton's second goal of the game on assists from Kyle Rago and Mason Freehling.  The Capitals would cut the lead to one on their second goal of the game making the score 3-2 Freeze.  With just over two minutes to play in the second period, the Freeze would score their third goal of the period as Ryan Carle would get into the action on Kyle Rago's second assist of the game leaving the score after two periods 4-2 Freeze.  The score would remain that way most of the third period when, with just under two minutes to play, the Freeze would add their final two goals less than a minute a part.  The first of these two goals was an unassisted goal by Zac Drake, his second of the game, and the last was Ryan Carle's second goal of the game on assists from Tanner Reits and Mason Freehling making the final score 6-2 Freeze.  In the game the Freeze recorded their most shots on goal for the season with 30 shots to the Capitals 18 shots.  Cooper Klaus was great in the net as he had 16 saves.

With its 1-2 record in round robin play, the Freeze would play KOHA #2, which finished with a similar record in its division, for 5th Place on Sunday afternoon.  The Freeze had faced this KOHA #2 team two times previously beating them 5-2 and 5-1.  Just over a minute and a half into the game, the Freeze would score first on Ryan Carle's third goal of the tournament on an assist from Tanner Reits.  Emil Johnson would get into the scoring action for the tournament later in the first period on an assist from Zac Drake making the score 2-0 with just under five minutes to play in the period.  Emil would add his second goal of the game two minutes later on assists from Zac Drake and Dalton Wolfe making the score after one period 3-0 Freeze.  Kyle Rago would score his first goal of the tournament with eight and a half minutes to play in the second period on an assist from Ryan Carle.  Three minutes later Taylor Matheny would get into the action on assists from Joe DeFay and Josh Bird to make the score after two periods 5-0 Freeze.  The Freeze would add a solo goal in the third period as Dalton Wolfe would get his first goal of the tournament on an assist from Emil Johnson making the final score 6-0 Freeze.  The Freeze ended up outshooting the Flames 26-10.  The team's defense was great this game and Cooper Klaus had another spectacular game getting his third shutout of the season.

For the tournament the Freeze had 14 goals for and 11 goals against.  Other stats included: