Horton edges NKEC to capture Art Lightfoot hockey tournament

BY JOHN DECOSTE

Kings County Advertiser

In possibly the best event in the six-year history of the Art Lightfoot Memorial high school hockey tournament, the Horton Griffins captured the tournament title with a 3-2 overtime win over the host NKEC Titans.

Jordan Matheson scored the overtime winner for the Griffins.

NKEC, after finishing first on points in a closely contested round robin, advanced to the Feb. 7 final with a marathon 5-4 win over West Kings on Dylan Dauphinee’s game-winning goal in the third overtime period.

West Kings, solidly in last place in the Valley high school league, was easily the surprise of the tournament, winning once and tying twice in three round robin matches to qualify for the playoff round.

Horton qualified for the final with a 4-1 win over Central Kings in a meeting of the second- and third-place round robin finishers.

In the round robin, two points were awarded for a win, one point for each period won and half a point for each period tied; for a total of five points up for grabs in each contest.

The preliminary round was a case of several strong teams, and several relatively weak squads. NKEC, Horton and Central Kings all finished with 2-0-1 round robin records. West Kings had a win and two ties, Middleton was 1-1-1, Bridgewater 1-2, and Clare and Ecole Par en Bas both 0-3.

NKEC opened with a 12-0 win over Clare, in which the Titans’ David Hayes finished with four goals and two assists.

Central Kings then won a back-and-forth contest with Middleton 6-4. West Kings topped Par en Bas 4-1, Horton and NKEC tied 2-2 and Bridgewater defeated Clare 7-4 to round out Friday’s action.

Saturday’s schedule began with West Kings and Middleton playing to a 3-3 tie. Central Kings blanked Par en Bas 5-0 and Horton beat Clare 8-2.

After lunch, NKEC shut out Bridgewater 5-0, Central Kings and West Kings played to a 5-5 tie, Middleton blanked Par en Bas 5-0 and Horton shut out Bridgewater 8-0 to complete the round robin.