NKEC wins Kelly tourney

BY JOHN DECOSTE

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

The NKEC Titans were nearly perfect in capturing the 32nd annual Fred G. Kelly high school hockey tournament Dec. 27-28 in Wolfville.

NKEC had a pair of goals from Keegan Wood, singles from Logan Phillips and Kris Bigelow and shutout goaltending from tournament MVP Trevor Samson in a 4-0 win over the Sir John A. Macdonald Flames in the championship final.

The Titans, who went through the two-day tournament unbeaten with four wins and one tie, scored 18 goals and allowed just two in five games: one in their 8-1 opening-game win over West Kings and the other in a 3-1 semi-final victory over Central Kings.

In the semi-final, which was scoreless through two periods, NKEC got third-period goals from Josh Porter, Vince Cashen and Bigelow, with Boo DiGioacchino scoring the lone CK goal.

CK led 1-0 with five minutes remaining, only to see NKEC score on a deflection from the point, a power play goal and an empty-net marker to round out the scoring.

Wild and woolly

Sir John A. lost only to NKEC 6-0 in the round robin, defeating both West Kings and Horton, before advancing to the final with a 7-5 win over Middleton.

That semi-final was wild and woolly, with several lead changes. Brett Backman had the hat trick for the Flames, who led 5-4 after two periods, and Mike Murrant scored twice.

The host Horton Griffins finished the round robin with a win, a loss and a tie (the Horton-NKEC game ended in a scoreless draw).

In their other games, Horton fell 4-0 to Sir John A. (a game that was 1-0 in the third period) and defeated West Kings 5-2.

Central Kings, Bridgetown and Middleton ended up at 2-1 in the Wells Division, with Middleton awarded top spot and CK the runner-up on goal differential.

Each of the three Valley teams won by forfeit over Liverpool, which was prevented from attending the tournament by the weather, leaving Sir John A. the only non-Valley team in the field.

In the Kelly Division, NKEC finished at 2-0-1, Sir John A. at 2-1, Horton at 1-1-1 and West Kings at 0-3.

Chosen to the tournament all-star team were NKEC’s Samson, the tournament MVP, in goal; Robbie Smith of Bridgetown and Cory Maas of Sir John A. on defense; and forwards Leigh Benjamin of NKEC; and Jesse Bent and Tyler Curry, both of Middleton.

Kris Bigelow of NKEC was the tournament’s leading scorer. Horton’s Erich Burton earned the Team Spirit Award and the Griffins’ team was the choice for the Fair Play Award.

- With files from Justin Halbersma