Peewee Hounds cling to chance of spot in gold game thanks to late rallies

By Medicine Hat News on March 30, 2019.

Desperation was the theme of the day at Hockey Alberta’s peewee AA championships in Irvine.

The host Medicine Hat Hounds wound up with a pair of ties resulting from third-period comebacks, but left the rink not knowing if their gold medal hopes had been dashed.

In their morning game against Edmonton’s SouthWest Zone, goals from Deegan Kinniburgh, Ryan Miller and Samuel Hynes had the Hounds up midway through the second period. Hynes’ second early in the third made it a three-goal lead again, but Edmonton scored three goals in a five-minute span to earn the draw. The last two came off the stick of Garrett Thom.

Thom and Maxwell Stanton each had two goals and an assist, as did Medicine Hat’s Hynes. Kaige Schafer made 38 saves for the Hounds while Lucas Gensler stopped 35 for Edmonton.

In the final game of the day, Calgary’s Glenlake had a 2-0 lead before Kinniburgh and Wyatt Dreger tied it early in the third. Matthew Lowry scored to give Glenlake a 3-2 lead but Josiah Jackson tied it for good with 2:58 left.

The results mean Glenlake, at 2-0-1, is assured of a spot in Sunday’s final. Medicine Hat, at 0-1-2, is tied for third and could finish anywhere from second to last place in the five-team round robin.

They play 2-1 Leduc Saturday, where a win would leave the teams tied in points. Edmonton (0-1-1) could yet pass them all for second as they have two games left, while West Central at 1-2 could also factor in to a tiebreaker.

Sunday’s bronze medal game is at 9 a.m. with the gold medal game at 12:15 p.m.