Jets clip Eagles in houseleague play

The Christmas break provides a quieter time for most levels of local minor hockey, though the games do not shut down completely.

A Northeast Houseleague Hockey triple-header on Dec. 29 featured a pair of peewee encounters and a bantam match-up, though some teams were dealing with depleted rosters.

With only six skaters, including one who had to don the goalie pads, at their disposal, the Copper Cliff Eagles took it on the chin in a peewee game, blasted 12-4 by the Sudbury Jets.

The Jets featured an extremely balanced attack, with Andrew Prince, Philippe Larochelle. Ethan Harris and Ethan Sheppard scoring twice each for the winners, and Kaeleb Edmonds, Jason Diotte, Jaydin Courville and Connor Brooks chipping in with one goal apiece.

Sean Roberts countered with a four-goal effort for the Eagles. The second peewee game was equally as offensive, though much closer in the end.

Joel Emond lit the lamp on four occasions, leading the Sudbury Timberwolves to an 8-5 victory over Valley East King Sportswear.

Riley Bruni, Brett McGlade, Andrew Parks and Zacharie Girox rounded out the scoring for the SMHA crew, with Alex Tremblay (2), Niko Goulet, Matt Dubois and Keegan Crabs answering in a losing cause.

The bantam encounter also proved to be the chippiest, with a total of 92 minutes in penalties handed out as the Sudbury Ice Dogs outscored Walden Patrick Mechanical 4-1.

The Ice Dogs received two goals apiece from Erik Roussel and Thomas Faggioni, with a first-period tally from Ben Simpson breaking the shutout bid of netminder Eric McDonald.

Defensive hockey was the order of the day for a pair of Northeast Houseleague Hockey League games in Garson on Dec. 30.

Stephanie Legault scored on a goal-mouth scramble with just 1:31 to play, pushing the Sudbury Midget AA Lady Wolves to a 3-2 win over the Nickel Centre Jets.

Jenna Gough and Karli Shell also tallied for the girls, with Robbie Skiffington and Ryan Quinlan answering in a losing cause.

Laurentian Voyageurs' goaltending prospect Emily Toffoli-Henderson turned aside 27 of the 29 shots she faced, while Tyler Brady came through with 22 saves of his own at the other end of the rink.

The goalies were also in the spotlight in the earlier bantam game as call-up Dylan Dokis (Nickel Centre Rocks) and Amy Vincent (Sudbury Rage) combined to make 56 saves in a 1-1 tie.

Dokis, on loan to the Rocks with players away for the holiday season, made plenty of new friends, not only backstopping his team to a tie but also drawing an assist on the only Nickel Centre goal.

Defenceman Carter Rollins rifled a long wrap-around to the neutral zone, where Justin Gibeault did the rest, dancing into Rage territory and fooling Vincent with a well-placed wrist shot early in the third.

But Sudbury would draw even with just 5:14 to play as Zacharie Ouellette blasted a shot home from just inside the blue-line with his team on the power play as the Rocks and Rage settled for a draw.