Wolfpack edge Eden in Zone 4 final
The West Niagara Wolfpack needed the best efforts of stay-at-home defenceman John Mayberry Tuesday to escape with a 2-1 victory over the visiting Eden Flyers in the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Zone 4 boys AAA hockey final.
“John played a great game on defence,” West Niagara coach Alex Carey said. “John was an alternate player last year and he started this year as an alternate player for us this year and he never complained. A guy got hurt this year and John joined full time.”
He likes what Mayberry brings to the ice.
“He is about 6-foot-5 with the wingspan of an albatross and he plays responsible. He tries hard and comes to every practice.”
Carey describes Mayberry as a shutdown player.
“He’s like a Chris Tanev shot blocker and he has a fantastic attitude all around. He got a bunch of assists this year and was kind of an unsung hero.”
The 17-year-old Grade 12 student was thrilled with the win.
“It feels pretty good in my last year.”
He had no issues with being an alternate player.
“What’s there to complain about? You paying less than the other players on the team but you are playing the same amount,” he said, with a smile.
Mayberry didn’t totally buy his coach’s description of him as a shutdown defender.
“Sometimes I am a shutdown player and sometimes not. It depends on the day.”
He has enjoyed his time playing hockey at West Niagara.
“It is all the friendships I have built up and the collaboration, communication, teamwork and all the skills I learned at West Niagara.”
Despite the disparity on the shot clock, the game was in doubt to the final whistle.
“It was a pretty close. They got the first goal and you can get down on yourself if you are dominating and the other team gets the first goal but unlike other games this year they stuck with it, got a goal back right away and kept pressing,” Carey said. “We got a lot of shots and their goalie played really, really well.”
He gave Eden a lot of credit for their performance.
“We beat them 5-2 and 6-2 earlier in the season and they weren’t close games. They played a much better game so full credit to them for making it that tight.”
Mayberry wasn’t overly thrilled with his team’s play.
“It could have gone a lot better. We started off slow, maybe it was the hour delay (waiting for the refs to arrive), I don’t know. I think we will do well the rest of the season.”
Carey enjoyed the atmosphere at the game.
“It was awesome. We had two busloads of kids come for the buy-out.”
Carey and Steven Malcolm are in the first year of coaching replacing legend Roger Piotrowski.
“We’re just winging it and making it up as we go,” Carey said.
West Niagara went 4-2 in the regular season, dropping a pair of games to A.N. Myer.
Eden coach Andrew Wilson described the game as a great battle.
“It was a very close game and both teams played hard. Unfortunately, we ran into a bit of penalty trouble and that happens,” he said. “Both teams played phenomenal and it was anyone’s game. West Niagara came out on top. Congratulations to them.”
Eden was outshot significantly in the game but many of them were from the outside.
“There were a few bounces that went our way and we definitely could have got more shots on net. They had more opportunities to score and they scored on them.”
Wilson felt his team improved as the season wore on.
“We started off relatively slow but the team grew together as the season went on and our last two games of the season were our best as a team. That’s what you want to see in high school hockey.”
He is looking forward to next season.
“We have a very young team and there is only two graduating players on our team so we should have a pretty competitive squad next year.”
STATS PACK
Wolfpack 2 Flyers 1
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: West Niagara’s Josh Bertrand with the winning goal.
For the West Niagara Wolfpack: Goals by Bertrand and Coby Green. Assists by Zac Beamish and Ian Gibson.
For the Eden Flyers: Goal by Mason Muzzle with an assist from Evan Wilson.
Game stats: Shots on goal: by West Niagara on Liam Hering 31, by Eden on Owen Anderson 14. Penalty minutes: West Niagara 41, Eden 56. Power plays: West Niagara 0-3, Eden 0-0.
Up next: West Niagara advances to the SOSSA AAA boys championships March 4 in Hamilton.
