The Huntsville Novice Rep Otters hosted ten teams for the annual Duke Knox Tournament from December 7-9 at the Canada Summit Centre.
Huntsville faced off against the TNT Tornados for their first game on Friday. TNT led the scoreboard to start with two goals in the first period, but once the Otters had warmed up they eliminated all chances for their opponents for the rest of the game. The boys were on point and took the win with a final score of 5-2 for the Otters. Brady Higgs (#8) kicked off the tournament with a hat trick in this game joined by a goal each by Carter Quinlan (#9) and Daelen Kay (#3).
The Otters met the Listowel Cyclones for an intense second game on Saturday. Listowel scored in the first three minutes, a goal answered a minute later by Jake Boettger (#2) from the Otters and followed by a second goal by Carter Quinlan (#9) only 20 seconds after that. In return, with less than a minute passing, Listowel scored again to wrap up the first period with a tied score of 2-2. The second period had both teams playing hard and both goalies keeping the pucks out of their nets. In the third, Listowel scored with just eight minutes left to take the lead 3-2. But Otters’ defenseman Warren Neal (#10) made a defensive rush and scored with four minutes remaining to finish with a 3-3 tie.
Later that day, the Otters played their third game of the tournament against the Kawartha Coyotes, needing a tie or a win to move on to the semi-finals. Huntsville started off strong, dominating the first period with two goals scored by Brady Higgs (#8) and Jake Boettger (#2). Kawartha made a quick comeback, scoring three goals in the second period. Otter Jake Boettger (#2) scored two that period to give him a hat trick for the game and put Huntsville back in the lead. But Kawartha would score twice more in the third period, with Huntsville’s Carter Quinlan (#9) scoring the only Otter goal to tie up the game with a final score of 5-5.
The tied games were enough to advance the Otters to the semi-finals on Sunday against the feared Penetang Flames who’ve defeated the Otters a few times previously in regular season play. Nonetheless, they were all intent on putting up a good fight! The Otters scored first with a goal by Jake Boettger (#2) but shortly after Penetang began to earn their goals one after the other which would continue until the final buzzer to end the game 11-1. Penetang advanced to the finals against Listowel and were the Duke Knox winning champs with a score of 3-1 in an exciting and well-matched game.
Both of the Otters goalies, Quinten Cool and Nathan Tunney played really well this weekend and the Otters showed strong teamwork with some great passing, players supporting one another and very few penalties.
The Huntsville Novice Rep Otters (back from left) Duncan Russell (trainer), Jeff Higgs (head coach), Nick Andrews (assistant coach), Tanya Neal (assistant trainer); (third row from left) Will Evans (5), Jake Boettger (2), Ewan Russell (6), Zachary Woods (13), Warren Neal (10), Carter Quinlan (9); (second row from left) Grayam Harkness (7), Cooper Lawrence (4), Brady Higgs (8, captain), Weston Earl (14, assistant captain), Liam Andrews (17), Daelen Kay (3); (from from left) goalies Nathan Tunney (15) and Quinten Cool (10) (supplied photo)
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