The Soo Bantam Greyhounds became stronger as the tournament progressed and peaked with a fine performance in the Steel City final.
Backed the unbeatable goaltending of Justin Hogsden, the Greyhounds cruised to a 3-0 win over the Green Bay Gamblers to claim the AAA bantam minor championship on Sunday afternoon at the 23rd Annual Steel City International Hockey Tournament at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
The Greyhounds came out flying and took the play to the Gamblers from the opening face off. Kyle Jean, who was strong throughout and was named the game's most valuable player, opened the scoring 5:17 in when he took a feed from Jerry Petingalo and beat Green Bay goaltender Steve Glapa through the five-hole.
Zachary Larue banged home the second goal late in the first period while Jean added his second of the game in the second period to close the scoring. Anthony Colizza recorded two assists for the winners.
"We played a great game and created all kinds of scoring opportunities," said Greyhounds head coach Domenic DeLuca Jr. "In small rinks our forecheck is really aggressive and we create a lot of opportunities for ourselves. Our defensive is very mobile and they are very active in our forecheck and it creates a lot of havoc for other teams. Today it almost worked to perfection."
Hogsden was about as good as a goaltender could possibly be in the tournament. Seeing action in three games while splitting time with partner Greg McAllister, Hogsden didn't allow a single goal and recorded three shutouts.
"Our goaltenders have been unbelievable all year and they have keep us going. Our goals against is right down I think we have only given up 71 goals in 52 games this season. That's a combination of everyone buying into our system and great team defense," said DeLuca.
The Greyhounds, which finished the tournament with a 6-0 record, advanced to the championship game with a convincing 8-3 win over Michigan's Calumet Rotary in Sunday morning's semi-final game.
Mike Rivard paced the Greyhounds attack in the semi-final with three goals while singles went to Larue, Dean Howard, Kevin Closs, Jarrett Burton and Jean.
"We got off to a slow start but we kept building and by (Saturday's) game with Green Bay, where we beat them 2-0, we had hit our stride. We stayed focused and carried it over into today and peaked," said DeLuca.
The Greyhounds, who have played 52 games so far this season, will now play out the stretch in the Northern International Hockey League with the team gearing up for the NIHL playoff tournament at the Big Bear Arena in Michigan Sault in late February before hosting the Northern Ontario Hockey Association playdowns in late March.