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Orangeville Wolves in Ottawa tournament

March 25, 2015   ·   0 Comments

The Orangeville Wolves special hockey team travelled to Ottawa to take part in the annual Special Hockey International (SHI) tournament.  There were 72 other teams at the event from throughout the United States, Canada, and England.  The Wolves participated in the “mixed” division for teams with a wide variety of skill levels on the same team.

The tournament opened with the annual coaches game pitting coaches from the Canadian teams against those from the rest of the world.  Wolves assistant coach Grant Paulin put on a good showing for team Canada.

The Wolves participated in four games over three days including games with the Colorado Ice Wizards, The Buffalo Sabres Thunder and two games with different Grandravine squads.

The Wolves had a particularly strong game to close out the tournament against the  Grandravine Teal squad.

Jacob Santos opened the scoring for the Wolves with the ever improving Gordon Best and Craig Stellick drawing the assists.

Just seconds later Josh Sibley had an easy tap in for the Wolves following a thunderous end to end rush by the Wolves Danny Barbour.

Travis Grist picked up the third Wolves goal finishing off a nice give and go with Kelly Hu Dong.

Jacob Santos picked up the next Wolves marker with the vastly improved Scott Van Gerven getting the assist.

Darrin Johnston was next to hit the score sheet for the Wolves with Barbour and Best drawing the assists.

Barbour then potted two quick unassisted markers both with shots to the top shelf.

Santos then scored his second of the game off some nice work by Best in stripping the puck from a streaking Grandravine player at center ice.

Bradley Thompson scored the Wolves 9th goal early in the second period making quick work of a penalty shot.

Matthew Spizzirri picked up his first of the tournament to the delight of his family with Connor Pohl and the hard working Wolves defenseman Billy Wyatt picking up the assists.

Barbour completed the hat trick with help from Darrin Johnston and Mark Nicholas.  Barbour’s offensive prowess should not overshadow his defensive work as he did a great job of back checking all weekend.

Johnston scored his second of the game with some nice work on the play contributed by Jason Armstrong and Cory Smith.  Matthew Ingram brought the Wolves crowd to its feet closing out this two period game with another penalty shot that he buried though the five hole.

Grandravine matched Orangeville’s 13 goals in this back and forth affair.  The score would have been much higher if it were not for the hard work of the Wolves veteran goaltenders Adam Brown and Adam Thompson.  Brown’s stand up style provided a nice contrast to the athletic work of Thompson that seemed to confuse the Grandravine side.

Wolves mascot Shawn Chalmers did an excellent job in motivating the team despite constant pressure from fans for autographs and photos throughout the game.

The Wolves were also lucky to be staying at the same hotel as the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

A couple members of the team were fortunate in seeing off the Leafs bus before their game and were greeted warmly by several players including the ever gracious Dion Phaneuf in particular.

One lucky Wolf and his father also had their dinner tab picked up on Friday night by three Leafs who wished to remain anonymous.

The tournament closed with a dinner and dance at Algonquin College that included much of the popular pin trading.

The Wolves are already looking forward to next year’s tournament which takes place April 1-3 in Lake Placid, New York.

The team cannot rest however as it started fundraising for next year as soon as the team bus arrived back in Orangeville.

The teams next (and largest fundraiser) is their annual golf tournament which takes place on Saturday, June 6th at the Fergus golf club.

The team is looking for golfers, prizes, and sponsors.

If you can help please contact Kevin Stone, kstonewall@hotmail.com.

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