Four years ago, Glenn Coghlin’s St. Marys Rock Peewees won the OMHA Championship.
The next year, without the services of Brady Wiffen and Scott Coghlin who had joined the Lakers, the Peewees again went to the OMHA Finals, this time with Brian DeGroote behind the bench. After losing the first two games in Collingwood, the team fought back and tied the best of five series. In the second period of the final game St. Marys were trailing by a score of 3-1. With help from current Lakers Mike Siddall, Braydon Blight, Brett Stacey, Jared Zufelt, Jesse DeGroote, and David Sproat, former Laker Dominic Pieroni scored three unanswered goals. The team went to the dressing room (the dads went to the bus) at the end of the period full of confidence leading 4-3. In the third period the momentum shifted back to Collingwood who ended up winning 6-4 with an empty netter. That March 31 game, played on Grandpa Sproat’s 85th birthday, was ‘the one that got away’, the most disappointing and heartbreaking game to date. That long ago Peewee game will now be remembered as "the first one that got away".
Make room in the unbearable memories part of your brain for Game #5 against the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs - the "other one that got away". After winning games two and four of the semi-final series, Chris Stewart's '94s had momentum on their side. The first period of the final game was evenly played, the only difference being a Chiefs’ power play goal. The Lakers had a power play of their own with Shawn Moore coming close to tying it. In the second period, the Lakers did everything but score. Ryan Watson came close to tying it with an amazing effort, catching the puck behind the net and quickly dropping it to his stick as he moved out in front only to be denied. Ray Huether came close with a spinning wrist shot. Drew Reinhardt kept hope alive by somehow regaining position in time to stop a shooter. Toward the end of the period, Watson narrowly missed a Huether rebound. Moore had another chance cutting in from the side but his snapshot was smothered. At this point the Lakers had stayed with the powerful Chiefs for the past fourteen periods. In the fifteenth and final period of the series, the Chiefs finally got the upper hand for good and scored three goals. Ray Huether got a beauty late in the game to spoil the shutout. Final score 4-1. Game over. Series over. Dream ended. However, if there was ever a series to be proud of it was this one. Riding the remarkable goaltending of Drew Reinhardt, recently shorn and motivated by the courage of teammate Tyler McGregor the boys gave it their all and came very close to defeating the Chiefs, who went on to defeat London Gold for the championship.
Article by: Paul Sproat