Soo Indians Midget AAA Hockey Club - NLHL Playoff Tournament

The Soo Indians traveled to Faribault, MN to play in the inaugural Northern Lakes Hockey League Playoff Tournament. After driving all night into the early morning, the Indians had most of the day off to recover from the ride.

They played their first game at 6:15 Friday night against their nemesis, Capital Centre Pride. With Joey Gravedoni in net, the battle ensued. Cody Blom opened the scoring at 4:19 of the first on an assist from Chris Hoffman. CCP capitalized (no pun intended) on their powerplay at 4:19 of the second. They followed up with two more unanswered goals in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Their first and third goals were powerplay goals. Chris Hoffman (Nate Fitzpatrick) pulled the Indians to within one goal at 15:03.

In the third, both goalies held strong and there was no further scoring. Cap Centre took the game by a 3-2 score. The Indians outshot the Pride and Gravedoni stopped 25 of 28 shots on net.

The Indians will now play the Thunder Bay Kings on Saturday at 12:30. TB beat Marquette on Friday by a 2-1 score.

Game two was Saturday against the Thunder Bay Kings. TB opened the scoring at 2:10 of the opening period, but the Indians came back strong with three unanswered goals in the first; two by Matt Samuel (Jeremy Gravedoni, Dave Castellion)(Chris Hoffman, Kyle Maleport) and one by Castellion (Gravedoni).

Thunder Bay came back in the second and tied the game with the only two goals scored in the period. At the beginning of the third, TB scored again to regain the lead and go on to win the game. Joey Gravedoni stopped 36 of 40 shots on goal.

Even though the Indians are now 0-2 in the tournament, they played Shattuck St. Mary's in game three in which the winner would go to the Championship game.

SSM started the scoring at 7:14 of the first and followed that goal up with a second just :13 seconds later. The Soo's Jeremy Kaunisto (Chris Hoffman) scored at 10:35 while Cody Blom (Taylor McRorie) tied the game at 12:24. SSM followed up with one more goal at 15:35.

The second and third periods were all SSM. They scored two two more goals in each period to take a 7-2 victory and show why they finished in first place in the NLHL.

Alex Eno started in net and saved 17 of 19 shots. Joey Gravedoni finished the game and made 16 saves on 21 shots.

Game four was a rematch against the Thunder Bay Kings. The outcome would determine the third and fourth place finish.

Thunder Bay hit fast at just :32 seconds into the game and followed up at the 6:00 mark for a two goal lead. Dave Castellion (Matt Samuel) capitalized on a powerplay and pulled within one goal at 10:54. TB, however, answered right back at 16:08 to take a 3-1 lead after one period.

There was no scoring in the second but the third showed only one goal scored and that was by Thunder Bay.

Adam Eno played net for the Soo and stopped 31 of 35 shots he faced.


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