Centre Wellington hockey team wins OMHA championship
FERGUS – The Centre Wellington Fusion (CWF) U18 team won the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) A Championship in Whitby on April 2.
The best 12 teams in the OMHA battled it out in a tournament style format to decide the playoff champion.
CWF swept the round robin last Friday with wins over the Collingwood Junior Blues and the Whitby Wildcats.
This set CWF up for a bye into the quarterfinals where they met the New Hamburg Junior Firebirds -- a team they beat the week prior in the Tri-County Championship.
CWF defeated the Junior Firebirds 5-1.
The following Sunday morning CWF met the Welland Tigers in the semifinals and won 2-1, sending them to the final.
CWF played the Markham Waxers in the championship game Sunday afternoon. CW fell behind 3-0 before Keegan Detweiler took a feed from Cam Skerritt and scored their first goal with less than 10 minutes left in the third period.
Tye Sanderson buried a loose puck behind the Markham goalie with just over two minutes left on the clock, bringing CWF within one. As time was running out, Eddie McDonald found Owen Tovell at the blue line in time for one last shot.
Tovell scored as time expired to tie the game and send it to sudden death overtime.
The first overtime was met with outstanding goaltending in both ends.
The score remained tied after the first overtime.
Just over two minutes into the second overtime, Thomas Bendixen found Ryan Doerr in motion, whose shot from just inside the blue line found its way past the Markham goalie. CWF won the nail-biter 4-3.
The team will compete in the Ontario Hockey Federation Championship tournament later in the month in Porcupine, Ontario where they will be the OMHA champion representative.
