The Humboldt Under-16 Hurricanes stormed through their opposition recently at the Saskatoon Eastside Grevers' tournament, coming away as Division III champions.
The Eastside Grevers' tourney took place June 17-19.
The Under-16 Hurricanes needed a dramatic 2-1 overtime shootout win over the Weyburn Black Devil to put the wraps on their tournament gold medal win. The 'Canes finished first in a pool of five teams to advance to the final, and held a 1-0 lead over Weyburn into the last few minutes of the final contest on June 19. Matthew Ortman scored in the first half on a cross that led to a scramble in front of the Weyburn net.
The 'Canes defence held the Black Devil off almost to the very end, but Weyburn's full assault saw the Black Devil tie the game with only 90 seconds remaining in regulation.
"They came with a lot of pressure, and had nine men in our 18-yard box and only one man back," Hurricanes coach Keith Hogemann said. "Our goalie (Joshua Hogemann) had been run in the game quite a few times, and he was pretty banged up. He was limping pretty good."
Humboldt dominated play in the 10-minute overtime, but failed to score. The teams then went to penalty kicks, with each side selecting five players to shoot.
Since the 'Canes' usual netminder was on the limp, Hogemann opted to put Aiden Wickenhauser in goal, and he performed very well. Still, all five players on both teams scored, leading then to sudden death penalty kicks.
Both teams failed to score on the sixth kicks. Then Josh Hogemann - newly raised from the dead - came off the Humboldt bench to take his turn. He beat the Black Devil goalie to the right side of the net, giving the Hurricanes what would prove to be the game and tournament winner.
Wickenhauser then pushed Weyburn's next shot wide, and it was sweet victory to the 'Canes.
Coach Hogemann was thrilled with the way his team performed.
"It was a really exciting game, and our team played great," he said. "Between the kids learning how to communicate and play defence, they've taken huge strides toward becoming a very good team."
The 'Canes opened the tournament with an abbreviated 3-2 win over the same Weyburn squad, with the contest being held indoors on a half-court, due to the heavy rains earlier in the day.
"It was fast and furious," Hogemann said. "We were in control 3-0 by the half. Weyburn found a couple holes in our defence in the second half to make it close. But they got their second goal with about 30 seconds left, so it was never really as close as the score made it look."
Later that night the 'Canes took the field with just nine players, as both their starting goalkeeper and the usual backup were away. Still, with Wickenhauser and Tyler Kwasnica handling the netminding duties, they outclassed the Saskatoon Lakewood Heat 1-0.
"Those guys did great," Hogemann said. "The kids have really learned to communicate and play defence. Once we got the lead, they pulled back into a defensive mode, and they really protected the lead well."
Game three saw Humboldt back to full strength and up against the Saskatoon SUSC Big Ups. The Hurricanes took that contest by a 1-0 count as well, and put them into the tournament final.
It was the second strong showing in as many tournament for Humboldt. Three weeks ago, the Under-16s earned a silver medal at the Avalon Classic, also in Saskatoon.
In their opening game at that tournament, they played a man short because two of their players were away. They also suffered the loss of one player due to a broken leg. Still, even with a 14-year-old call-up added to the roster just to have 10 players on the field, they managed a hard-fought 2-2 draw with Flin Flon.
Back to full strength for the remainder of the tournament, the 'Canes went on a romp from there, shutting out all competition against teams in their pool, winning by counts of 3-0, 5-0 and 4-0 to advance to the tournament final. Unfortunately the luck didn't hold out against their archrivals from Melfort-Tisdale, as the Hurricanes went down to a 3-0 defeat.
"It was a hard-fought game, and it always is against Melfort," Hogemann said. "But by that point our kids were tired and hurting.
"One of our guys had blisters on his feet, and a knee injury. He'd come off the field and put ice on his knee and rest his feet, and then he'd go out and play some more. We had some bloody noses because it was pretty intense, physical play, so they were all pretty banged up. But still, they exceeded my expectations. I was just hoping to be competitive, and there we were in the final. They did awesome. I'm really proud of them for hanging in there like they did."
Coaching the Under-16 Hurricanes alongside Hogemann are Luke Wickenhauser and Ed Zimroz.
