Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Finishing third at the 2024 Great North U18 Hockey League’s Post Season Tournament in Sudbury, Ontario with a 2-1-2 record, the Soo U18 Greyhounds took to the ice on Saturday, March 23rd for an afternoon semi -final matinee against the 2-1-2 Timmins Majors. The winner of this semi final will meet the Sudbury U18 Wolves in the 2024 Great North U18 Hockey League’s Post Season Tournament Championship game on Sunday, March 24th. The Greyhounds are coming off a 3 – 2 win on March 21st over the Majors at the 2024 Great North U18 Hockey League’s Post Season Tournament.
Petoskey, Michigan’s Stosh Schultz fires a shot from between the faceoff circles in front of Timmins net to find the back of Major goaltender Alex Hall’s net at 10:17 of the first to give the Soo a 1 – 0 lead. Samuel Caruso notched the lone assist on Schultz’s goal. With 3:22 remaining in the opening period with a scrum in front of the Majors crease, Griffin Albert picks up a rebound to lift the Greyhounds second past Hall to send the Soo into the first intermission up 2 – 0. Camden Cowan drew the helper on Albert’s goal. From just inside the centre of the blueline, Liam Watson rifles a wrist shot through traffic on a Greyhound powerplay to sink his second of the tournament to bring the lead to 3 – 0 at 11:32 of the second. Espen Escasa and Camden Cowan added the contributors on Watson’s powerplay goal.
In front of Soo netminder AJ Borrelli’s crease all alone on a five on three Timmins’ powerplay, dan Etheridge finds the back of the Greyhounds net at 7:24 over Borrelli’s catcher to close the gap to two. Tannen Iserhoff drew the assist on Etheridge’s powerplay marker. With 6:06 left in the second and the Majors still on a powerplay, Teegan Bertrand sent a cross crease pass to Ian LaChance to lift Timmins’ goal of the period over a sprawling Borrelli to pull the Majors within one. At three minutes even in front of the Soo’s crease, Teegan Bertrand sinks an unassisted Majors’ goal with picking up his own rebound to even the game 3 – 3 with Nolan Cardinal registering the helper on Bertrand’s tying goal. With the Greyhounds on a powerplay, defenseman LIam Watson fires a shot along the ice to be tipped by Major goaltender by Soo forward Sebastian Dos Reis to give the Soo a 4 – 3 lead. Coulson Bell added the other assist on Dos Reis go-ahead goal. At 8:16 of the third period, Tannen Isheroff finds the back of Borrelli’s net through traffic to tie the game 4 – 4 for Timmins with Teegan Bertrand and Evan Katic notching the contributors. Jacob Drobny rifles a slapshot from just inside the right blueline to find the back of the Soo’s net 12:29 into overtime to send the Majors to the 2024 Great North U18 Hockey League’s Post Season Tournament final against the Sudbury U18 Wolves. Zach Secord and Edan Etheridge added the assists on Drobny game winner.
The Majors will hit the ice for the first time since 2014 for their chance to be crowned the 2024 Great North U18 Hockey League’s Post Season Tournament Champions and advance to the 2024 U18 AAA OHF CHampionships from April 8th to 14th hosted by the Soo U18 Greyhounds.
