By Larry Moko
The Bishop Ryan Celtics participated in an historic high school hockey game at Mountain Arena Wednesday.
By defeating the Celtics, 5-2, Georgetown 87s won the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference championship, thus advancing to the OFSAA tournament for the first time ever.
Georgetown opened the scoring against the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic champions when Jonas Kalverda banged in a shot from the top of the goal crease after taking a pass from behind the net by Ronan Kennedy.
Henry Barrett of BR then tied the score by swiping in a rebound of Levi Snider's shot from a rush down the wing.
One minute later, 87s regained the lead on a goal by James Bowan.
In the second period, Rocco Ottorino gloved the puck out of the air and made a quick pass in close to Landon Bellchamber for the third Georgetown marker.
Kalverda then connected for his second goal of the game with 1.9 seconds left in the middle period.
"That was a back-breaker," Celtics coach Justin Cannon said of Georgetown's three-goal cushion. "Our guys still believed going into the third period. We played well and skated well."
The Celtics edged closer when Snider deflected in Brady Guimond's shot with about four minutes left.
Ottorino's goal, with BR netminder Nicholas Lagges pulled in favour of an extra attacker, rounded out the scoring.
"They're a fast-skating, hard-hitting team," Cannon said. "Very polished. They have good systems."
Other than the empty-netter, Cannon said all of the 87s goals were scored "from really close in front of the net."
According to Williams, Kalverda -- he wears No. 87 -- is a big body who has great "net-front presence."
"He gets those goals all the time .. the ones right on the edge of the crease."
When asked about his team's strength, Williams said: "Depth is our biggest attribute. We have three lines that are first lines.
"The kids want it. They go hard every shift. We have threats on every line and our goaltender is as good as anybody's."
Cannon said the Celtics showed the effects of a prolonged layoff after winning the Hamilton Catholic league championship.
"The three-week break really hurt us," the BR coach said. "(Georgetown) played 48 hours ago. Watching the game you could see we had a lot of rust."
The Celtics also lost the services of winger Brett MacQueen, who went to hospital with a shoulder injury from a hit on the first shift of the game.
"We were down our second-leading scorer," Cannon said.
The BR coach added that it was a fun season overall and the team was talented.
"Our goal was to win the (league) championship again which we did."
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
More photos on HWCDSB Athletics Facebook page
