Stars refused to fade
The Niagara North Stars U16 AAA squad finished with a 46-27-4 record this season. Photo: INSIGHT IMAGING.
The Niagara North Stars U16 AAA squad fought to the final buzzer this season.
The North Stars put together a solid season, going 46-27-4 overall including 22-8-1-3 in league play, but what gave head coach Curtis Conrad the most pride was the intensity his players brought to the rink night in and night out, even in the final couple games of the OHL Cup after they had already been eliminated.
“Ultimately we had a 1-3 record but the boys played hard and showed well in front of the scouts,” Conrad said. “The last two games didn’t really mean anything and we were short but the boys still played super hard. We beat Barrie 1-0 and we didn’t pack it in.
“They played hard and it was nice to see for sure.”
The North Stars finished with a 1-2 mark at the OMHA playdowns but received a wild card bid to advance to the OHL Cup where they won in dramatic fashion against long-time rival Oakville.
“They have had some good battles since I’ve been coaching them in U15 and U16, and they’ve had good battles with them in the past as well,” Conrad said. “It was a good game on the Monday morning we got up 1-0 early and took a couple of penalties at the end and they scored late on the power play to tie it up.”
The North Stars then punched their ticket to the OHL Cup when Trent Enns scored late in the third overtime.
“Trent scored a nice goal from the point which was awesome,” Conrad said. “It was a nice way to finish the season, knocking off Oakville. It was just disappointing that four or five of the kids weren’t really able to play much in the tournament but it was a nice way to go out with the boys.”
The North Stars battled injuries throughout the playoffs.
“We had four APs (associated players) for one of the games and we played short and we were able to get a win against a good team in Barrie.”
Conrad was also pleased with the progress of the players throughout the season in their draft year.
“We talked a lot with the kids about getting them ready for the next steps in hockey and some of them are definitely going to be moving on next year to junior hockey,” he said “I think all of them, at some point in time, have the chance to play a high level at junior and making sure they have the right mindset and are able to handle adversity and obviously building their games to be able to do that as well.
“I think a lot of them made big strides this year and hopefully they can continue to push themselves to get to the next level and take some of the stuff that we taught them for sure.”
Members of the team are: Reif Steenhuis, Nick Soliman, Chase Partridge, Kieran Raynor, Sandro Guttaiano, Aidan Ryan, Joshua Simpson, Ty Wickman, Gavin Christie, Trent Enns, Keenan David, Cooper Oikawa, Tomas Hill, Zaiden Hraiche, Anthony Stasiowski, George Babatsikos, Miller Bryan.
Staff: Head coach Curtis Conrad. Assistant coaches Jay Day, Mark Evely, Dan Scotland. Team manager Peter Partridge. Trainer Harry Krekorian.
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