The midget AA Thompson King Miners travelled to Melfort, Sask. for a Jan. 27-29 tournament. Their first game was on Saturday morning against the 13-0 Rosthern Wheat Kings. The King Miners got off to a slow start, failing to capitalize on some early penalties by the Wheat Kings. The Wheat Kings managed to get a good scoring opportunity on some defensive breakdowns, allowing them to pick up the opening goal at the halfway mark of the first period. The Miners started to push the tempo a little more, getting a breakaway goal from Austin Chubb at the end of the first. The Miners came out stronger in the second, but picked up a pair of penalties early on, slowing play down again. As the tempo picked back up the King Miners got on the scoreboard again on a goal from Trent Laycock assisted by Alex Primrose at the 11-minute mark of the second period. Rosthern battled back and tied the game 2-2 just before the end of the period. After the break the King Miners came back and took control of the rest of the game, with two quick goals one from Brent Mader assisted by Robbie Bonthron and Laycock, and another from Breyden Constant-Turner assisted by Arnelle Evans and Josh Barnowich. The game got a little rough after the two goals with both teams picking up a few penalties. Zac Beaver unfortunately picked up a five-minute charging penalty with less than 10 minutes to play which resulted in him have to miss the next game as well. The King Miners fought off the penalty nicely with goal tender James MacLean keeping Rosthern score less in the third. The King Miners' Evans got one more in the last minute of the game assisted by Constant-Turner to end the scoring. The final score was 5-2 for the Miners, who handed Rosthern their first loss of the year and earned a bye to the semifinals.
The semifinal game Sunday morning was against the Saskatoon Aces. Goaltender Nick Haney started for the Miners. The Aces got on the scoreboard first with a goal in the opening minutes of the game. The King Miners battled back well and managed to get three goals in the first period - one from Evans assisted by Barnowich, one from Myles Bennett assisted by Alex Primrose and Bonthron, and another from Constant-Turner assisted by Evans. In the second, the Aces battled back with two quick goals on some defensive zone breakdowns. The coaches made a goalie change putting in MacLean. "Not getting into the corners first and our gap control is what was killing us" said coach Craig Nychyporuk. The King Miners got rolling again with a goal from Evans assisted by Barnowich. They then picked up another momentum-building goal with 41 seconds left in the second from Barnowich assisted by Austin Chubb and Patrick Denis (on a power play) to close out the second period up 5-3. The third period was all King Miners with four unanswered goals - from Chubb assisted by Zac Wenstob, a pair from Patrick Denis (one shorthanded) with assists to Laycock and Denis Hanlon, and the last one from Barnowich assisted by Constant-Turner. The final score was 9-3 for the Miners.
The final game for gold was played Sunday night against the LaRonge Braves. LaRonge got on the scoreboard first with a quick goal in the opening shift against the King Miners MacLean. The King Miners battled back and picked up a goal to tie it up 1-1 from Evans assisted by Wenstob three minutes into the period. The game went back and forth for about 10 minutes with both teams getting good scoring chances. LaRonge picked up a go-ahead goal at the 7:45 mark of the first, but the King Miners' Laycock tied it back up seven seconds later of a pass from Primrose. Both teams picked up another goal to end out the period tied at 3-3. LaRonge's goal was on a power play and the Miners' goal was full strength from Evans assisted by Constant-Turner and Barnowich. The second period saw the King Miners get the first goal on a shot from Evans (his first hat trick of the year) assisted by Bonthron and Constant-Turner. LaRonge answered back with a tying goal with 1:27 left in the period. Not to be outdone, Wenstob put one in with just 53 seconds left in the second period (assisted by Bennett and Chubb) to put the Miners up 5-4 . The third period went scoreless until the Braves put one it to tie it with four minutes left. Play went back and forth until the Miners got LaRonge hemmed in their own end, and Denis scored the go ahead goal in for the Miners to make it 6-5. With just a minute left in the game, LaRonge pulled their goalie to try and tie it up, but the King Miners held them off to come up with the win. "We talked about tightening up the bench in the third period" said Nychyporuk, "but we really didn't have to. "I set a few goals for the team both on and off the ice, and they managed to meet all of them, including the big win in the final game" said coach Jason Brabant, "I was happy with the team's overall performance on the weekend. We made a few changes before the tournament in the line-ups to give some of the boys an opportunity, and they all performed well". This was the first time in a few years that Thompson has won this tournament.
The King Miners travelled this past weekend to the Tournament of Champions in Brandon, which started Feb. 17, and will finish the season at home in Thompson at the midget AA provincials March 9-11.
