Tigers lose in consolation final at Victoria Inn tourney

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Published on Sunday, December 2, 2012

By: Lanny Stewart

myWestman.ca

For the Neepawa Tigers, it felt like a bad case of deja vu on Sunday afternoon at the 22nd annual Victoria Inn high school hockey tournament in Brandon.

For the second straight year, the Tigers lost to the Winnipeg-based John Taylor Pipers in the Victoria Inn Division consolation final. This time, losing 4-3 in a shootout at the Optimist arena.

Tigers forward Garett Rempel scored late in the third period on a two-man advantage to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Neepawa failed to score in the five-minute extra session and in the shootout.

"We thought we did pretty good overall," said Tigers forward Riley Kolesar, who ended up being named a tournament all-star. "We were hoping to do a little bit better -- but we'll take what we can get I guess."

The Tigers had several solid scoring chances throughout the contest, however Neepawa could not get any more pucks passed Pipers' netminder Brett Bigourdin -- who made several key stops late in the game and in OT. He also stopped all three Neepawa shooters in the shootout.

"He had a pretty good game against us," said Tigers head coach Mike Adams. "We thought we had a good game plan going up against him, but he came up big and stopped us when it counted."
 
Shane Levandosky and Jesse Adams scored the other goals for Neepawa -- a club that found themselves in the consolation playoffs in the Victoria Inn Draw (top division) after losing to the Oak Park Raiders in the A-side quarter-finals 3-1 on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers would then defeat the St. John's Ravenscourt Eagles 3-0 in the consolation semi-final on Saturday night.

"We definitely were hoping for a different outcome in our minds," said Tigers head coach Mike Adams. "When we come to this tournament, we intend to come here and learn and grow. I think from that standpoint, it was a very successful tournament."

The Tigers were bit by the injury bug during the tournament as well. Adams says several players on the Neepawa team were battling the flu during the four-day event.

"The guys were fighting sicknesses all week," said Adams. "We didn't have a backup goalie for four of the five games because he's been at home in bed. It's pretty exhausting when you're playing shorthanded like we did."

The Tigers defeated Garden Valley 4-1 and Massey Winnipeg 5-1 in the club's first two games of the tournament.

Oak Park wound up winning the tournament, defeating the Fort Frances Muskies 1-0 in the championship final. The Dryden Eagles meanwhile, defeated the Stonewall Rams 7-1 to finish in third place.

In photo: Pipers' netminder Brett Bigourdin stops a Neepawa shooter in the shootout. Neepawa lost by a score of 4-3. Photo by Lanny Stewart