HOCKEY: Waterdown wins boys championship

HAMILTON (March 1, 2018) – The Waterdown Warriors earned the 2017-18 Hamilton public boys hockey championship crown downing the Ancaster Royals 5-3 at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena on Thursday afternoon.

Waterdown’s Mason Drury nabbed the game-winning goal on a breakaway, slipping behind the defenders after an expiring penalty in the second period. That goal turned out to be the game-winner to bring home the Warriors third boys hockey title in school history. The Warriors won titles in 2015-16 as well as 2006-07.

The game started with an explosion of offense with three goals being scored in the first five minutes (all coming just over a minute apart).

Waterdown’s Lucas Thompson opened the games scoring at 1:57 of the first period before Ancaster tied the game 43 seconds on a goal by Royals’ Evan Gibbs. The Warriors would regain the lead just 24 seconds later on an unassisted goal by Braden McCarles.

Waterdown made the score 3-1 when Ryan Downe netted a goal with under five to play in the first.

The game see-sawed back and forth from that point with Ancaster notching a goal in the second period on a penalty shot taken by Callum Macdonald. Minutes later Drury would net the game-winner.

Kyle Nash of Ancaster and Waterdown’s Zac Osborne scored the remaining two markers trading goals in the final period

Overall, Osborne and McCarles each registered two points in the win for Waterdown (a goal and an assist).

Waterdown and Ancaster both finished the regular season with identical 6-1-2 records; the teams tied twice and Waterdown earned a 4-0 victory late in the year to claim the No. 1 seed using the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The city championship victory advances Waterdown to the Southern Ontario Secondary School Association (SOSSA) ‘AAA’ boys hockey championship set for Tuesday (March 6) in St. Catharines, Ont. A championship win at SOSSA will qualify Waterdown for the provincial championship held March 21-23 also in St. Catharines.

For official championship photos from the event visit: https://www.flickr.com/hwdsbathletics/

TV: Catch High School Hockey on Cable 14
Don’t miss the rebroadcast of today’s boys’ hockey championship which will air on Cable 14 at 9:00 am on Friday morning. It also airs again at 7:00pm on Sunday evening (March 4th). The girls game which was live on Cable14 on Wednesday also gets a rebroadcast at 6:00am on Sunday morning. Don’t forget fans can also watch games live or on-demand at Cable14Now.com

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