Tough starts for local teams at Peewee championships

Both the Sudbury Major Peewee "AAA" Wolves and the Nickel City Major Peewee "AAA" Sons are happy to have the Don Mills Flyers out of the way.

While the GTHL (Greater Toronto Hockey League) champs cruised to easy wins over both local entries at the 2016 All-Ontario Peewee "AAA" Hockey Championships Monday at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Arena, the Sons and Wolves proved much more competitive in their remaining outings on opening day.

Beaten 6-1 by the Flyers in the very first morning game, Nickel City bounced back to earn a 5-5 draw with the Brantford 99ers. Jacob Gaudet scored a pair of third period goals to help the Sons register the tie, including netting the game-tying marker with just 45 seconds to play.

Zacharie Giroux, Devon Savignac and Bradley Brunet joined Gaudet on the scoresheet, while Landon McCallum (2), Maddox Callens, Keegan Damota and Zachary Betts tallied for Brantford.

Easily the most impressive team on opening day, Don Mills rode a three-goal performance from Alex Christopoulos to their game one win, with Jesse Fishman adding a pair, and Callum Jarvis closing things off. Defenceman Joshua Kavanagh broke the Flyers shutout bid with a power-play blast from the point in the middle stanza.

Don Mills proved every bit as dominant in game two, with Christopoulos registering a second straight hat trick in a 6-0 win over Sudbury. Liam Arnsby, with two, and Luke Pitbaldo completed the rout, with Ben Lottman posting the whitewash.

The Wolves fared better in their morning opener, dropping a 5-3 decision to the Whitby Wildcats. The home side struggled out of the gate, surrendering goals to Mikael Simon-Serroul, Brenden Sirizotti and Joshua Manou in the opening 5:10 of play.

But the host club fought back, as Ethan Marois scored before the end of the period, and Mitchell Martin buried the only two markers of the second, leaving the teams deadlocked at 3-3 heading to the final fifteen minutes of play.

Unfortunately, goals from Ryan Welsh and Tristan Pelligra spelled the difference for Whitby, which outshot Sudbury 26-23.

"Not to make excuses, but there was probably a bit of rust - but we battled back hard to tie it," said Sudbury coach Vagelli Sakellaris following their encounter with Whitby.

Though he knew the team would be in tough against Don Mills, Sakellaris noted some key takeaways from the opener that will be key, especially in facing Nickel City, Brantford and the Thunder Bay Kings.

"Based off of this game, the two big things we need to improve upon are defensive zone coverage - we can't have those breakdowns that we had today - and secondly, we need a consistent 45 minute effort," said Sakellaris.

"We simply can't afford to take two or three shifts off."

The local pairing will renew their rivlary on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m., with the Wolves taking to the ice a second time, at 8:15 p.m., versus Thunder Bay.

The remaining Monday matchup would see the Ottawa Jr. Senators pull off a late win against the Kings. Easton Ryan snapped a 2-2 tie with just over three minutes to play, and Brandt Clarke completed his hat trick into an empty-net as Ottawa doubled Thunder Bay 4-2.

The Kings netted the first two goals of the game early in period two, both on the power-play, as Ryan Doucette and Jett Mintenko both found the mark.