April 14, 2015
1849
The Ripley Wolves were celebrating Sunday afternoon as they hoisted the WOAA Senior 'A' trophy - their first championship since they won the ‘B’ title back in 1995.
The Wolves won three games straight on the weekend to come back from a 3-1 series deficit and defeat the Shallow Lake Crushers in Game 7 at the Lumley Bayshore Arena in Owen Sound.
The amazing turn-around began Friday night when the Wolves defeated the Crushers, 3-2, in Game 5.
This was followed by a 7-1 routing Saturday night in front of a huge hometown crowd at the Ripley Arena.
In that game, Ripley opened the scoring midway in the first on an unassisted effort by Tyler DeVos. Drew Davidson made it 2-0 for Ripley, assisted by Brett Catto and Tyler McCarthy.
A short-handed goal by Travis VanGaver from Jeremy McQuillin, made it 3-0 partway through the second; and Catto added another to make it 4-0, assisted by Cody Britton and Davidson.
Ripley scored three powerplay goals in the final frame, to go up 7-0: Britton from Jordan Turcotte; Brian Stanley from Mark Stanley; and Paul Stewart from Devin Kemp and Shawn Stewart.
The Wolves maintained that shut-out until the last five seconds of the game when Shallow Lake snuck in a goal. Ripley goalie Jason Reid was incredible in net.
This forced Game 7, back in Owen Sound, where the Wolves won by a comfortable 5-0 score, thoroughly dominating the deciding game from the drop of the puck, and scoring all five goals in a wild second period.
The game could have taken a different turn early in the first when the Crushers jumped on a turnover at the Wolves blueline for a clear cut breakaway, but Reid stood tall in net, and kept the game scoreless.
From that point on, the Wolves played a smart, disciplined, defensively-sound game and let their natural talent up front go to work in the middle frame to put the game out of reach. Goals were scored by Brett Catto, Nick Locking, Tim Dwinnell, Tyler DeVos and Drew Davidson.
The Wolves executive thanks the players, coaching staff, volunteers, sponsors and fans for their dedication this season. It is a massive commitment to be a part of this team, and you all deserve to enjoy this accomplishment.
This wraps up the 2014-15 WOAA Senior hockey season, Tillsonburg won the ‘AA’ title earlier this month.
-- with information from ripleywolves.com
Written ByLiz Dadson is the founder and editor of the Kincardine Record and has been in the news business since 1986.
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